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»‘ iP t, »y 




Testimony Taken on the Trial of 
Andrew Johnson 


BEFORE THE 


Senate of the United States Sitting as a 
Court of Impeachment. 


Printed in the Reporting Style of Phonography, in ac¬ 
cordance with “The Reporter’s Companion,” 
by Benn Pitman and Jerome 
B. Howard. 


i 


WITH A KEY IN FACSIMILE TYPEWRITING 


CINCINNATI: 

THE PHONOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE COMPANY. 









Testimony Taken on the Trial of 

Andrew Johnson 

11 

BEFORE THE 


Senate of the United States Sitting as a 
Court of Impeachment. 


Printed in the Reporting Style of Phonography, in ac¬ 
cordance with “The Reporter’s Companion,” 
by Benn Pitman and Jerome 
B. Howard. 


WITH A KEY IN FACSIMILE TYPEWRITING 


CINCINNATI: 

THE PHONOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE COMPANY. 
I9I5- 





. Jl 76 


JUL i 




9 


PREFACE. 


The testimony from the trial of Andrew Johnson given in 
the following pages should be interesting to young phonogra- 
phers, not merely as a phonographic exercise in the reporting 
style, useful tho it is for that purpose—not merely even be¬ 
cause of its historical significance, important and instructive 
as that may be—but especially because of the fact that some 
of the most famous of the shorthand reporters of the last cen¬ 
tury were witnesses in that trial, and because the subject- 
matter of their testimony was such as to raise many nice 
questions regarding the use of shorthand notes and transcripts 
in evidence. 

On February 28, 1868, by a vote of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives, Andrew Johnson, then president of the United 
States, was impeacht before the bar of the Senate of high 
crimes and misdemeanors in office, and order was taken by the 
Senate for the president to appear and answer. Eleven articles 
in maintenance of the impeachment were exhibited by the 
managers of the impeachment on the part of the House of 
Representatives, and some twenty-five witnesses were called 
by the prosecution to give parol testimony in its further sup¬ 
port. '1 he trial (which lasted nearly three months) was pre¬ 
sided over by Salmon P. Chase, then chief justice of the 
Supreme Court, previously secretary of the treasury in Lin¬ 
coln’s cabinet, the entire body of the Senate sitting as judges. 
The prosecution was conducted on behalf of the managers by 
Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, and the defense 
of the president was maintained by a numerous body of 
counsel, among whom were Henry M. Stanbury, of Ohio, a 
former attorney-general of the United States; B. R. Curtis, of 
Massachusetts, who had previously been an associate justice 
of the United States Supreme Court; Jeremiah S. Black, of 
Massachusetts, who had been attorney-general and secretary 
of state in Buchanan’s cabinet; and William M. Evarts, then 
just rising into fame, afterward to be attorney-general, secre¬ 
tary of state, and senator from New York. 

Article X charged: 

That said Andrew Johnson, president of the United States, unmind¬ 
ful of the high duties of his office, and the dignity and proprieties thereof, 








4 


and of the harmony and courtesies which ought to exist and be maintained 
between the executive and legislative branches of the government of the 
United States, designing and intending to set aside the rightful authority 
and powers of Congress, did attempt to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, 
contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States, and the several 
branches thereof, to impair and destroy the regard and respect of all the 
good people of the United States for the Congress and legislative powers 
thereof, (which all officers of the government ought inviolably to preserve 
and maintain,) and to excite the odium and resentment of all the good 
people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and 
constitutionally enacted; and in pursuance of his said design and intent, 
openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of the 
United States, convened in divers parts thereof to meet and receive said 
Andrew Johnson as the chief magistrate of the United States, did, on the 
eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-six, and on divers other days and times, as well before 
as afterward, make and deliver, with a loud voice, certain intemperate, 
inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did therein utter loud 
threats and bitter menaces, as well against Congress as the laws of the 
United States duly enacted thereby, amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of 
the multitudes then assembled and in hearing. 

A series of specifications followed, expressly reciting times 
when and places where the President spoke in public in terms 
that were considered by the managers as corresponding to the 
characterization in the body of the article, the exact words on 
which they relied being quoted in the specifications. The 
speeches thus specified were delivered in the White House, 
and at Cleveland and St. Louis, in 1866, before and during the 
famous “swing round the circle” made by Mr. Johnson in 
that year. These speeches were, of course, reported for pub¬ 
lication in the newspapers of the day, and several newspaper 
and shorthand reporters were called as witnesses to verify the 
publisht reports as giving the words actually uttered by the 
speaker. Various questions especially interesting to short¬ 
hand reporters were thereupon raised and argued by counsel, 
such as the propriety of the revision and correction by re¬ 
porters and others of the verbatim notes of a public speech, 
the admissability in evidence of a newspaper report as a 
memorandum for refreshing the memory of a witness, etc. 

Among the famous reporters thus called to the witness- 
stand were the following: 

James H. Sheridan. —Born in Philadelphia, 1835, one of 
the famous groups of youths who received instruction in 
Pitman Phonography in the Philadelphia High School, and 
who became professional shorthand reporters of national re¬ 
pute—Dennis F. Murphy and J. J. McElhone being perhaps 
the most noted of the group. Mr. Sheridan’s first work on 
leaving school was as a newspaper reporter for the Philadelphia 






5 


press. He studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania 
bar. He then became private secretary to Stephen A. Douglas, 
whom he accompanied during the famous debates with Lincoln 
and during the presidential campaign of i860. After Douglas’s 
death Mr. Sheridan was associated with John W. Forney in 
founding the Washington Chronicle , and for a short period he 
was connected with the reporting corps of the national House 
of Representatives. During the civil war he served first as a 
private, and soon after as a paymaster, with the brevet rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. As such, he handled millions of dollars and 
made a faultless record as a fiduciary officer. In 1866 he en¬ 
gaged in general law reporting, occasionally taking newspaper 
assignments, and it was as the correspondent of the New York 
Tribune that he accompanied the party of the president 
“around the circle” in that year. In 1867, he was .appointed 
official shorthand reporter of the New York superior court, 
which he held in 1875 when he was elected judge of the Marine 
Court, later known as the City Court. He served six years on 
the bench, after which, Cincinnatus-like, he returned to the 
plow and continued to his death (in 1889) as official shorthand 
reporter of the New York Supreme Court. 

Francis H. Smith. —Born in Washington, Connecticut, 
1829, learned Phonography in 1846-47 from Henry E. Rock¬ 
well (father of Julius Ensign Rockwell), then a teacher in the 
high school of Winsted, Connecticut. Taught school, and, 
occasionally, shorthand classes, in early life; assisted the 
United States Senate reporting corps in 1850, first as aman¬ 
uensis and later as note-taker. In the fall of the same year he 
became a member of the first reporting corps of the House of 
Representatives—the Globe corps—William Hincks, Charles 
B. Collar, and J. J. McElhone being the other three members. 
Reported the Virginia state constitutional convention in 1851, 
the Massachusetts state constitutional convention in 1853, the 
Minnesota state constitutional convention in 1857. He made 
the Associated Press report of the military trial of the conspira¬ 
tors to assassinate Abraham Lincoln, and of the subsequent 
civil trial of John H. Suratt on the same charge; and during 
the war he reported hundreds of court-martial trials. He main¬ 
tained his connection with the House of Representatives’ corps 
until 1875, when he abandoned reporting on account of ill 
health. He was then appointed by the president a member of 
the board of Indian commissioners, and later became president 
of a Washington, D. C., bank. He died in Washington, Con¬ 
necticut, in 1906. 








6 


Daniel C. McEwan. —A native of New York; mastered 
Pitman Phonography in early life, and did his first reporting, 
for a military commission, during the war. He became Wash¬ 
ington reporter and correspondent for the New York World at 
the time that newspaper was edited by Manton Marble, and 
it was in this employment that he too “swung around the 
circle” reporting, the president’s speeches for his paper as he 
went. Later he became private secretary to William H. 
Seward, when the latter was secretary of state in Johnson’s 
cabinet. In the early 70’s he became official shorthand re¬ 
porter to the New York Supreme Court and held that position 
during the remainder of his professional career. 

L. L. Walbridge. —Began his reporting career early in the 
6o’s in St. Louis, and was one of the ablest phonographers that 
city ever knew. He did a vast amount of newspaper, court, 
and general reporting, and died in 1894, stricken with paraly¬ 
sis, the result of over-work in a long and exciting trial in the 
United States district court. He reported the St. Louis 
speeches of President Johnson for the Missouri Democrat of 
that city. 










































































































































































































































































































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TESTIMONY TAKEN ON THE TRIAL OF ANDREW JOHNSON FOR HIGH CRIMES AND 
MISDEMEANORS BEFORE THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SITTING 
AS A COURT OF IMPEACHMENT, FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1868. 

CHARLES A. TINKER, called for the prosecution, sworn and examined. 

DIRECT EXAMINATION. 

Question. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) You told us yesterday you were 
manager of the Western Union telegraph office. Have you from that of¬ 
fice what purports to be a copy of a speech which was telegrapht to the 
country, or any portion of the country, as made by Andrew Johnson on the 
18th of August, 1866? If so, produce it. 

Mr. Drake: I will state that we have not heard the question put by 
the honorable manager. 

The Chief Justice: The manager will be good enough to repeat the ques¬ 
tion. 

Mr. Manager Butler: It is whether, being agent of the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, you have what purports to be a copy of a speech which 
was telegrapht over that line, made by Andrew Johnson on the 18th day of 
August, 1866; if so, produce it. 

Answer. I have the files of the Associated Press dispatches sent on 
that day, containing what purports to be a copy of the speech delivered 
by the President. (Producing a roll of manuscript.) 

Q. From the course of business of the office are you enabled to state 
whether this was sent? A. It has the "cent” marks put upon all dis¬ 
patches sent over the line. 

Q. And this is the original manuscript? A. That is the original man¬ 
uscript telegrapht. 

Q. By what association was this speech telegrapht? A. By the Asso¬ 
ciated Press, by their agent in the city of Washington. 

Mr. Curtis: We must object to this, General Butler. He says it has a 
mark on it. He does not say he put the mark on it, or that he knows 
that anything was done, thus far. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Can you tell me, sir, to what ex¬ 
tent over the country the telegraphic messages sent by the Associated 
Press go? A. I suppose they go to all parts of the country; I cannot 
state positively. They are telegrapht direct from Washington to New 
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, there addrest to the agents of the As¬ 
sociated Press, and from New York they are distributed thru the country. 

1 


68 


Mr. Manager Butler (to the counsel for the respondent): The witness 
is yours, gentlemen. 

Mr. Curti6: We will not detain you, Mr. Tinker. 

Mr. Manager Butler: You can step down for the present, Mr, Tinker; 
hut do not leave. 

JAMES B. SHERIDAN, sworn and examined. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Your whole name, Mr. Sheridan. A. 

James Bernard Sheridan. 

Q. What is your business? A. I am a stenographer. 

Q. Where employed? A. At present in New York City. 

Q. What was your business on the 18th of August, 1866? A. I was a 
stenographer. 

Q. State whether you reported a speech of the President on the 18th 
of Augu31, 1866, in the East Room of the President's Mansion. A. I did. 

Q. Have you the notes taken at the time of that speech? A. I have. 
(Producing a notebook containing shorthand notes.) 

Q. Did you take down that speech correctly as it was given? A. I 
did, to the best of my ability. 

Q. How long experience have you had as a reporter? A. Some fourteen 
years now. 

Q. Did you write out that speech at the time? A, I wrote out a part 
of it. 

Q. Where? A. At the Presidential Mansion. 

Q. Who was present. A. There were several reporters present--Mr. 
Clephane, Mr. Smith. 

Q. What Clephane? Do you remember his first name? A, James, I 
think, is his first name. 

Q. What Mr. Smith? A. Francis H., I believe, is his name. 

Q. The official reporter of the House? A. At that time, I believe, 
he was connected with the House. 

Q. Who else? A. I think Colonel Moore was in the room part of the 
time; I do not know that he was in all the time. 

Q. What Colonel Moore? A. The President's private secretary, Wil¬ 
liam G . 

Q. After it was written out, what, if anything, was done with it? 

Mr. Curtis: He says he wrote a part. 

Mr. Manager Butler: The part that you wrote out? 

The Witness: I do not know. I think Mr. Moore took it. I was very 
sick at the time, and did not pay much attention to what was going on. 

Q. You think Mr. Moore took it? A. I think either he or Mr. Smith 
took it, as I wrote out my share of it. We divided it among us; Mr. 
Clephane, Mr. Smith, and I wrote out the speech, I think. 

Q. Look at that manuscript (Handing to the witness the manuscript pro¬ 
duced by C. A. Tinker), and see whether you recognize your handwriting. 

The Witness (having examined the manuscript): No sir, I do not recog¬ 
nize any of the writing here as mine. 

Q. Have you since written out from your notes any portion of the 
speech as you reported it? A. I wrote out a couple of extracts from it. 

2 




69 


Q. (Handing a paper to the witness.) Is that your writing? A. Yes, 
sir. 

Q. State whether what you hold in your hand is a correct transcript 
of that speech made from your notes? A. It is. 

Q. When was that written? A. It was written when I appeared before 
the board of managers. 

Q. Will you have the kindness to put your initials upon it? (The wit¬ 
ness raarkt it J. B. S.) 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the counsel for the respondent): The witness 
is yours, gentlemen. 

Mr. Stanbery: Have you got thru with this witness? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I said the witness was yours, gentlemen. 

Mr. Stanbery: Is this all you expect of this witness? 

Mr. Manager Butler: All at present, and we may never recall him. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) You have produced a notebook of original stenog¬ 
raphic report of a speech of the President? A. Yes, sir. 

Q, 18 it of the whole speech? A. Of the whole speech. 

Q. Was it wholly made by you? A. By me; yes, sir. 

Q. How long did the speech occupy in the delivery? A. Well, I sup¬ 
pose some twenty or twenty-five minutes. 

Q. By what method of stenographic reporting did you proceed on that 
occasion? A. Pitman's system of Phonography. 

Q. Which is, as I understand, reporting by sound, and not by sense? 

A. We report the sense by the sound. 

Q. I understand you report by sound wholly? A. Signs. 

Q. And not by memory of or attention to sense? A. No good reporter 
can report unless he always pays attention and understands the sense of 
what he is reporting. 

Q. That is the very point I wish to arrive at, whether you are attend¬ 
ing to the sound and setting it down in your notation, or whether you 
are attending to the sense and setting it down from your memory or at¬ 
tention to the sense? A. Both. 

Q. Both at the same time? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Your characters are arbitrary, are they not; that is, they are pe¬ 
culiar to your art? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. They are not letters? A. No, sir. 

Q. Nor words? A. We have word-signs. 

Q. But generally sound-signs? A. We have signs for sounds, just as 
the letters of the alphabet represent sounds. 

Q. But not the same. A. No, sir. 

Q. This transcript that you made of a portion of your report for the 
use of the committee was made recently, I suppose? A. Yes, sir; a few 
weeks ago. 

Q. Now, sir, what in the practise of your art is the experience as to 
the accuracy of transcribing from these stenographic notes after the 
lapse of a considerable period of time? A. Perhaps I can illustrate 
better by the present case--this report which I made here--the extract I 
gave when I was called before the managers, as I had accompanied the 

3 



70 


President on his tour. I did not know what they wanted me for; and when 
they told me to turn to this speech I did not even know that I had the 
notes of it with me; hut I turned to the speech, and found it there in 
the book, and I read off, as they requested I should--the extracts which 
the managers for the prosecution handed me, which I identified. 

Q. You read, then, from your stenographic notes? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And it was taken down? A. The reporter of the managers, I be¬ 
lieve, took it down; but I afterward wrote it out for them. 

Q. You do not make a sign for every word? A. Almost every word. 

"Of the" we generally drop, and indicate that by putting the two words 
closer together. Of course, we have rules governing us in writing. 

Q. That is, you have signs which belong to every word, excepting when 
you drop the particles? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. But not, as a matter of course, a sign that is the representative 
of a whole word? A. Yes, sir; we have signs representing words. 

Q. Some signs? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. For instance, for the word "jurisprudence," you have no one sign 
that represents it? A. No, sir; I should write that "j-r-s-p." 

Q. And that is an illustration of your course of proceeding, is it 
not? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Are these letters that you thus use, or only signs that represent 
letters? A. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Evarts (to the witness): That is all. 

Mr. Manager Butler: That is all for the present; remain within call. 

JAMES 0. CLEPHANE, sworn and examined. 

DIRECT EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) What is your business? A. I am at pres¬ 
ent deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. 

Q. What was your employment on the 18th of August, 1866? A. I was 
then secretary to Governor Seward, Secretary of State. 

Q. Are you a phonographic reporter? A. I am. 

Q. How considerable has been your experience? A. Some eight or nine 
years. 

Q. Were you employed on the 18th of August, 1866, to make a report of 
the President's speech in reply to Mr. Johnson? A. I was. I was en¬ 
gaged in connection with Mr. Smith for the Associated Press, and also 
for the Daily Chronicle, at Washington. 

Q. Did you make a report? A. I did. 

Q. Where was this speech made? A. In the East Room of the White 
House. 

Q. You say it was in reply to Mr. Johnson? A. It was in reply to 
Hon. Reverdy Johnson. 

Q. State partially who were present? A. There were a great many per¬ 
sons pre8ent--the committee of the convention. I noticed among the 
prominent personages General Grant, who stood beside the President dur¬ 
ing the delivery of the speech. Several reporters were present--Mr. 
Murphy, Mr, Sheridan, Mr. Smith, and some others. 

4 



7i 


ft. Were any of the cabinet officers present? A. I do not recollect 
whether any of them were present or not. 

ft. Did you report that speech? A. I did. 

Q. What was done with that report? State all the circumstances. A. 
With regard to the Associated Press report I will state that Colonel 
Moore, the President’s private secretary, desired the privilege of revis¬ 
ing it before publication; and, in order to expedite matters, Mr. Sheri¬ 
dan, Mr. Smith, and myself united in the labor of transcribing it; Mr. 
Sheridan transcribed one portion, Mr. Smith another, and I a third. Af¬ 
ter it was revised by Colonel Moore it was then taken and handed to the 
agent of the Associated Press, who telegrapht it thruout the country. 

ft. Look at that roll of manuscript lying before you and see if that 
is the speech that you transcribed and Moore corrected. A. (Having ex¬ 
amined the manuscript produced by C. A. Tinker.) I will state here that 
I do not recognize any of my writing. It is possible I may have dicta¬ 
ted to a longhand writer on that occasion my portion, tho I am not posi¬ 
tive in regard to that. 

ft. Who was present at the time of the writing-out? A. Mr. Smith, Mr. 
Sheridan, and Colonel Moore, as far as I recollect. 

ft. Do you know Colonel Moore's handwriting? A. I do not. 
ft. Did you send your report to the Chronicle? A. I would state that 
Mr. McFarland, who had engaged me to report for the Chronicle, was unwil¬ 
ling to take the revised report of the President's speech as made by 
Colonel Moore. He desired to have the speech as it was delivered, as he 
stated, with all its imperfections, and, as he insisted upon my rewrit¬ 
ing the speech, I did so, and it was publisht in the Sunday Morning 
Chronicle of the 19th. 

ft. Have you a copy of that paper? A. I have not. 

ft. After that report was publisht in the Chronicle of Sunday morning, 
the 19th, did you see the report? A. I did, sir, and examined it very 
carefully, because I had a little curiosity to see how it would read un¬ 
der the circumstances, being a literal report, with the exception of a 
word, perhaps, changed here and there. 

ft. You say with the exception of a word changed here and there; how? 

A. Where the sentence was very awkward, and where the meaning was ob¬ 
scure, doubtless in that case I made a change. I recollect doing it in 
one or two instances, tho I may not be able to point them out just now. 

If I had my original notes I could do so. 

ft. With what certainty can you speak as to the Chronicle’s report be¬ 
ing an accurate one? A. I think I can speak with certainty as to its 
being accurate, a literal report, with the exception that I have named-- 
perhaps a word or two here and there changed, in order to make the mean¬ 
ing more intelligible, or to make the sentence a little more round, 
ft. Will you give us an illustration of that change? 

Mr. Evarts: Some instance. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Yes, some instance. 

Mr. Stanberry: He said he could not recollect. 

The Witness: I will state that my attention was called to a particu¬ 
lar instance; I think it was a day or two after. Some correspondent, 

5 




72 


learning that the Chronicle had publisht a vertat-.r» report, had careful¬ 
ly scrutinized it--some correspondent who had listened to the delivery 
of the speech; and he wrote to the Chronicle a complaint of its not be¬ 
ing so, a 3 , in one instance, there was an expression of "you and I has 
saw," or something of that sort, and that sentence, of course, was cor¬ 
rected in the report publisht in the Chronicle. It appeared in the 
notes "you and I has saw," as this correspondent stated. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) How was it corrected in the Chronicle? 

A. "You and myself have seen," or something to that effect; I do not 
now remember. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I am informed, Mr. President, there being two man¬ 
uscripts, that Mr. Tinker has given me the one which was written out at 
length as a duplicate, and not the original, as I had supposed, and I 
shall have to ask to bring him on again. I have sent for him for that 
purpose. He will be here in a moment. (To the counsel for the respond¬ 
ent.) This witness is yours, gentlemen. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

ft. (By Mr. Evarts.) You aote-d upon the employment of the Associated 
Press? A. Yes, sir; in connection with Mr. Smith. 

ft. You were jointly to make a report, were you? A. We were to take 
notes of the entire speech, each of us, and then we were to divide the 
labor of transcribing. 

ft. Now, did you take phonographic notes of the whole speech? A, I 
did. 

ft. Where are your phonographic notes? A. I have searcht for them, 
but cannot find them. 

ft. Now, sir, at any time after you had completed the phonographic 
notes did you translate or write them out? A. I did. 
ft. The whole? A. The whole speech. 

ft. Where is that translation or written transcript? A. I do not 
know, sir. The manuscript, of course, was left in the Ghronicle office. 

I wrote it out for the Chronicle. 

ft. You have never seen it since, have you? A. I have not. 
ft. Have you made any search for it? A. I have not. 

ft. And these two acts of yours, the phonographic report and the trans¬ 
lation or writing out, are all that you had to do with the speech, are 
they? A. Yes, sir. 

ft. Now, you say that subsequently you read a printed newspaper copy 
of the speech in the Washington Chronicle? A. Yes sir. 

ft. When was it that you read that newspaper copy? A. On the morning 
of the publication, August 19, Sunday morning. 

ft. Where were you when you read it? A. I presume I was at my room. 

I generally saw the Chronicle there. 

ft. And you there read it 9 A. Yes, sir. 

ft. From this curiosity that you had? A. Yes. I read it more care¬ 
fully because of that reason. 

ft. Had you before you your phonographic notes, or your written tran¬ 
script from them? A. I had not. 


6 






73 


Q. And had not seen and have never eeen them in comparison with the 
newspaper copy before you? A. No, sir. 

RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler. Handing to the witness a bound volume cf 
the Washington Daily Chronicle.) Have you before you a copy cf the Cun- 
day Morning Chronicle of the 19th of August, 1666? A. I have. 

Q. Look upon the page before you and see if you can find the speech 
as you reported it. A. I find it here, sir. 

ft. Look at that speech--look at it a little carefully--and tell me 
whether you have any doubt that that is a correct report, a verbatim re¬ 
port of the speech of Andrew Johnson on that occasion; and, if so, what 
ground have you for doubt? 

Mr. Evarts: Mr. Chief Justice, we object to that as a code of proving 
the speech. It is apparent that there is a report cf this speech, and 
that it has been written cut, and that is the best and moat trustworthy 
evideaoe of the actual speech as made. In all legal proceedings we are 
entitled to that degree of accuracy ar.d trustworthiness which the nature 
of the case admits; and whenever evidence cf that degree cf authenticity 
is presented, then, for the first time, will arise the consideration of 
whether the evidence is competent and should be received. Hew, it is im¬ 
possible to contend, upon the testimony cf this witness, as it stands at 
present, that he remembers the epeech cf the President, so that he can 
produce it by recital, or so that he can eay upon any memorandum of his 
own shown him (for none ie shown) that from memory he can say it is the 
speech. What is offered? The same kind of evidence, and that alone, 
which would grow out cf some person who heard the President deliver the 
speech, and subsequently read in the Chronicle the report cf it, that he 
think3 that report was a true statement cf the speech; for this witness 
has told us distinctly that reading thi3 speech from curiosity, to see 
how it would appear when reproduced, without the ordinary guarantees of 
accuracy, he had neither his original notes nor his written transcript, 
and he read the newspapers as others would read it, but with more care, 
from this degree of curiosity which he had. If the true character cf a 
production of this kind, as imputed to its author, is to be regarded as 
important, we insist that th:3 kind cf evidence concerning a newspaper 
report of it is not admissible. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Mr. President, if I understand, there is no ques¬ 
tion of degree of evidence. We must take the business cf the world as 
we find it, and must not burrow ourselves and insist that we have awak¬ 
ened to matters as they were a hundred years ago. The art of stenog¬ 
raphy and stenographic writing and Phonography ha3 progrest to a point 
which makes us rely upon it in all the business cf life.. There is not a 
gentleman of this Senate who doe3 not rely upon it every day. There is 
not mere than one member cf the Senate who in this trial is taking notes 
of the evidence. Why? Because you rely upon the busy fmger3 cf the re¬ 
porter who sits by my side to give you a transcript of it, upon which 
you must judge. Therefore, in every business cf life, ay, in the very 
business cf thie court, we rely upon stenography. 

7 


74 


Now, this gentleman says that he made a stenographic report of that 
speech; that that was jointly made up by himself, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. 
Smith; that his employer, not being satisfied with that joint report, 
which was the President's utterance distilled thru the alembic of Colo¬ 
nel Moore's critical discrimination, he drew out with care an exact lit¬ 
eral transcript, under the chiding of his employer, and for a given pur¬ 
pose; and that the next day, having curiosity to see what would be the 
difference, and how the President of the United States would appear if 
put to paper literally, he examined that speech in the Chronicle, and 
then with the matter fresh in his mind, only a few hours intervening, 
with his attention freshly called to it, he said then he knew that that 
was a correct copy; that that was the correct speech. 

Now, the learned counsel say the manuscript is the better evidence. 

If there was any evidence that that manuscript had been preserved per¬ 
haps we might be called upon to produce it in some technicality of criti¬ 
cism of law as administered in a very technical manner. But who does 
not know the ordinary course of business--and if that is to be disputed 
I will ask the witness--who does not know that the ordinary course of 
business in a newspaper office, after such manuscripts are got thru with, 
is to throw them into the waste-paper basket? They are not preserved. 
Therefore I act upon the usual and ordinary and common understanding of 
the business of life, as all courts must act upon it. 

Then this is a question for the witness, and he testifies. The ques¬ 
tion that was objected to, the one we are discussing, is: Looking at 
that report, from your knowledge of the report, having twice written it 
out--portions of it oertainly--and from having seen it the next morning, 
with your curiosity awakened, can you tell the Senate whether that is a 
correct report? Thereupon the learned counsel for the President gets up 
and says he cannot. How does the learned counsel for the President know 
that? How does he know that Mr. Clephane is not one of those gentlemen 
who, in his profession, having once read a speech, can repeat it the 
next day? 

The difficulty is that I do not see how the objection arises. The 
question I put to the witness is a plain one: Sir, there is what I say 
is a copy of that speech, is a transcript of that speech; from your 
knowledge, having heard it, having written it down in shorthand, having 
written it once for correction by the President's private secretary, and 
then having rewritten it again from your notes for publication in the 
Chronicle, and then having examined it immediately after publication-- 
from all these sources of knowledge can you say that that is a correct 
copy? Thereupon the counsel for the President says you cannot. How 
does he know that the witness cannot repeat every word of it? 

The difficulty is the objection does not apply; and I should have con¬ 
tented myself with this statement except that, once for all, I propose 
to put before the Senate, so as not ever to have to argue it again in 
the course of putting in this class of testimony, the argument as to 
stenographic reporting. Now, allow me to state, once for all, two au¬ 
thorities upon this point, because I am not going to take the time of 
the Senate with arguing these questions hereafter, for by doing so I 

8 



75 


should play into the hands of this delay which has been so often attempt¬ 
ed here. In O'Connell's case, to prove his speeches on that great trial, 
the newspapers were introduced--and no trial was ever fought with more 
sharpness or bitterness--newspapers were introduced containing Mr. O'Con¬ 
nell's speeches, or what purported to be his speeches, and the only 
proof adduced was that they had been properly stampt and issued from the 
office, and the court held that Mr, O'Connell, allowing those speeches 
to go out without contradiction for months, must be held responsible for 
them to the public. 

In the trial of James Watson, for high treason, reported in 32 State 
Trials, this question arose, and the question was whether a copy might 
be used, that copy made even of partially obliterated shorthand notes. 

Mr. Attorney General (to Mr. Dowling): You state that you took in 
shorthand the address of Mr. Watson to the people? A. I did. 

Q. Have you your shorthand notes here? A. I have. 

Q. Be so good as to read to my lords and the jury what it was he 
said, 

Mr. Wetherell: Pray, Mr. Shorthand Writer, when did you take that 
note? A. I took it on the 2d of December, in Spafields. 

Q. When did you copy it out? A. I copied it out the same even¬ 
ing. 

Q. Is that the copy you made that evening? A. No; it is not. 

This is the shorthand note I took, and this is a literal copy. The 
shorthand note I took with a pencil, and in the crowd, and, perhaps, 
having been taken six months back, it may be somewhat defaced; but I 
can read the shorthand note with a little difficulty, tho certainly 
I could read the transcript with more ease. I will read the short¬ 
hand note if it is wisht. 

Mr. Justice Abbott: You made that transcript the same evening? 

A. I made this transcript yesterday. I made another transcript 
the same evening. 

And he was allowed to read his transcript. While this authority is 
not exactly to the point of difference raised here, I say I put it once 
for all upon the question, because I have heard a cross-examination as 
to the merits of Pitman's system of shorthand writing as if we were to 
have it put in controversy here, that the whole system of stenography 
was an unavailable means of furnishing information. Therefore my pres¬ 
ent proposition is the right to put this question: Mr. Witness, looking 
at that, can you tell me whether that is a correct transcript of the 
speech made by the President? 

Mr. Evarts: The learned manager is quite correct in saying that I do 
not know but that this witness can repeat from memory the President's 
speech; and whenever he offers him as a witness so to do I will not ob¬ 
ject, It is entirely competent for a person who has heard a speech to 
repeat it under oath, he asserting that he remembers it and can do so, 
and whenever Mr. Clephane undertakes that feat it is within the compe¬ 
tency of evidence. What success he will have in it we shall determine 
when that experiment has been tried. That method of evidence from this 
witness is not attempted, but another form of trustworthy evidence is 
sought to be made competent--that is, that by his notes, and thru his 

9 





76 


transcript of those notes, he is able to present, under his present oath 
and belief in his accuracy and competency as a reporter, this form of ev¬ 
idence. Whenever that is attempted we shall make no objection to that 
as trustworthy. 

But when the managers seek to avoid responsibility and accuracy thru 
the oath of the witness applied in either form, and seek to put it, nei¬ 
ther upon present memory nor upon his own memoranda, but upon the accura¬ 
cy with which he has followed or detected inaccuracies in a newspaper 
report made the subsequent day, and thereupon to give credit and authen¬ 
ticity to the newspaper report upon his wholesale and general approval 
of it, then we must contend that the sacred right of freedom of speech 
is sought to be invaded by overthrowing certainly one of the responsible 
and important protections of it; and that the rule requiring the oath of 
somebody who heard and can remember, or, according to the rules of evi¬ 
dence, preserved the aids and assistances by which he presently in the 
court of justice may speak, should be adhered to. And we are not to be 
told that it is technical to maintain in defense of what has been regard¬ 
ed as one of the commonest and surest rights in any free country, free¬ 
dom of speech, that whenever it is drawn in question it shall be drawn 
in question upon the surest and most faithful evidences. 

The learned manager has said that you are familiar, as a part of the 
daily routine of your congressional duties, with the habit of stenog¬ 
raphic reporting ahd reproduction in the newspapers, and that you rely 
on it habitually; and I may add rely on it habitually to be habitually 
misled. Correction is the first demand of every public speaker-correc¬ 
tion and revision, in order that this apparatus, depending upon the ear 
and the sudden strokes of the ready writer, may not be the firm judgment 
against him of what was said by him. Now, when sedulously this news¬ 
paper has undertaken that no such considerations of accuracy shall be af¬ 
forded to the President of the United States in respect of this speech 
to be spread before the country, but that express orders shall be given 
that it shall be reported with all its imperfections-- 

Mr. Manager Butler: I pray correction, sir. I have not sedulously 
done that; but offer it that the speech of the President’s private secre¬ 
tary should not go before the country. 

Mr. Evarts: The instructions of the editor were that it should be re¬ 
ported ’’with all its imperfections" as caught by the shorthand writer, 
without the opportunity of that revision which every public speaker at 
the hustings or in the halls of debate demands as a primary and import¬ 
ant right. Whenever, therefore, Mr. Clephane shall rise and speak from 
memory the speech of the President here, swearing to its accuracy, or 
whenever he shall produce his notes and their transcript as in Watson's 
case, some foundation for the proof of the speech will have been laid. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Stand down, Mr. Clephane, for a moment. I will 
offer this directly. Now I will call Mr. Tinker. 

CHARLES A TINKER, recalled. 

The Chief Justice: The witness states that he desires to make an ex¬ 
planation. He will make it. 

The Witness: Yesterday when called upon the stand I was attending to 

10 




77 


my duties in charge of the telegraph office in the gallery; I had not a 
moment's notice that I was to be called. I then telegrapht to my office 
for the documents contained in packages that were there, which I had 
been previously examined about before the managers. These documents 
were brought to me by a boy from the office, and I put them upon the 
stand. Last night when taken from the stand I deposited them in the of¬ 
fice of the Sergeant-at-arras, and this morning brought one of these pack¬ 
ages upon the stand, and I opened it here, supposing it to be the one on 
which I was to be examined. As I saw that the reporters were in trouble 
about it, I thought I had made a mistake, and I consequently went to my 
office, after Mr. Clephane came upon the stand, and I have now the 
speech of the President telegrapht by the agent of the Associated Press 
on the 18th of August, 1866. 

Mr. Stanbery: Mr. Tinker, what document was that General Butler hand¬ 
ed you? 

The Witness: This is one of the documents. 

Mr. Stanbery: Is that the speech of the 18th of August at all? 

The Witness: This is not the speech of the 18th of August. 

Mr. Manager Butler: That is the 22d of February speech, is it? 

(Laughter. ) 

Mr. Stanbery: No matter what it is. 

The Witness: I have not lookt to see what this is. 

Mr. Manager Butler: You will find out what that document is in good 
time. 

Mr. Stanbery: You had better put it in "in good time." 

Mr. Manager Butler: It was simply a mistake. (To the witness.) Now 
give me the document I askt for. 

The Witness: Yes, sir. (Producing a roll of manuscript.) 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Is this the document you supposed you 
were testifying about before? A. This is. 

ft. Do you give the same testimony about that that you did-- 

Mr. Curtis and Mr. Stanbery: That will not do. Let us have his tes¬ 
timony about this. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Well, sir, we will give all the delay possible. 

(To the witness.) Now, sir, will you tell us whether that was sent thru 
the Associated Press? A. It bears the marks of having been sent, and 
is filed with their dispatches of that date. 

ft. From the course of business of your office, have you any doubt 
that it was so sent? A. None whatever, 

Mr. Curtis: We object to that. If the witness can say it was sent 
from any knowledge he has, of course he will say so. He cannot reason 
on facts. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): After that speech wa3 sent, if 
it was, did you see it publisht in the Associated Press reports? A. I 
cannot state positively; I think I did. 

ft. Was that brought to your office for the purpose of being transmit¬ 
ted, whether it was or not? A. I did not personally receive it; but it 
is in the dispatches of the Associated Press sent on that day. 

Mr. Manager Butler: That is all at present. Now we will recall Mr. 
Sheridan. 

11 






78 


JAMES B. SHERIDAN recalled. 

RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION RESUMED. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler. Handing to the witness the manuscript 
last produced by Mr. Tinker.) Now, examine that manuscript and see 
whether you find any of your handwriting in it. A. (Having examined 
the manuscript.) I see my writing here. 

Q. What is it you have there? A. I have a report of the speech made 
by the President on the 18th of August. 

Q. In what year? A. 1866. 

Q. Have you ever seen Mr. Moore write? A. A good many years ago, 
when he was reporter for the Intelligencer and I reported for the Wash¬ 
ington Union, and we had seats together. 

Q. He was a reporter for the Intelligencer, was he? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Are there any corrections made in that report? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do you see any corrections there? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Is that the manuscript which was prepared in the President's of¬ 
fice? A. I think it is; I am pretty certain it is. 

Q. Have you any doubt in your mind? A. Not the least. 

Q. Was the President there to correct it? A. No, sir. 

Q. Then he did not exercise that great right of revision there, did 
he, to your knowledge? A. I did not see the President after he left 
the East Room. 

Q. Do you know whether Colonel Moore took any memoranda of that 
speech? A. I do not. There was quite a crowd there. I had no opportu¬ 
nity of observing. 

Q. Will you pick out and lay aside the portions that are in your hand¬ 
writing. (The witness proceeded to do so.) 

Mr. Manager Butler: I will give you time to do that in a moment. (To 
the counsel for the respondent.) Anything further with this witness? 

No response. 

Q. Do you think you know all that are in your handwriting? A. Yes, 
sir. (Selecting certain sheets and handing them to Mr. Manager Butler.) 

Mr. Evarts: We will now put a few questions. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) You have selected the pages that are in your 
handwriting and have them before you. How large a proportion do they 
make of the whole manuscript? A. I can hardly tell. I have not exam¬ 
ined the rest. 

Q. Well, no matter; was this whole manuscript made as a transcript 
from your notes? A. This part that I wrote out. 

Q. Was the whole? A. No, sir. 

Q. The whole was not made from your notes? A. No, sir; Mr. Clephane 
wrote his part from his notes, and Mr. Smith from his. 

Q. Then it is only the part that you now hold in your hands that was 
produced from the original stenographic notes that you have brought in 
evidence here? A. That is all. 


12 



79 


Q. Did you write it out yourself from your stenographic notes, follow¬ 
ing the latter with your eye, or were your notes read to you by another 
person? A. I wrote out from my own notes, reading my notes as I wrote. 

Q. Have you made any subsequent comparison of the manuscript now in 
your hands with your stenographic notes? A. I have not. 

Q. When was this completed on your part? A. A very few minutes 
after the speech was delivered. 

Q. And what did you do with the manuscript after you had completed it? 
A. I hardly know. I sat at the table there writing it out, and I think 
Mr. Smith took it as I wrote out; I am not certain about that. 

Q. That ended your connection with it? A. That ended my connection 
with it. I left for New York the same night. 

Q. I desire that you should leave your original stenographic notes as 
a part of the case subject to our disposal. A. Certainly. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Put your initials upon these papers. 

The Witness: I will do so. 

(The notes were markt "J. B. S.") 

Mr. Manager Butler: One of my associates desires me to put this ques¬ 
tion which I suppose you have answered before--whether that manuscript 
which you have produced in your handwriting was a true manuscript of 
your notes of that speech? A. It was. I will not say it was written 
out exactly as it was spoken. 

Q. What is the change, if any? A. I do not know that there were any 
changes, but frequently in writing out we exercise a little judgment. 

We do not always write out a speech just as it is delivered. 

Q. Is that substantially a true version of what the President said? 

A. It is undoubtedly. 


FRANCIS H. SMITH sworn and examined. 

(By Mr. Manager Butler.) Are you the official reporter of the House 
of Representatives? A. I am, sir. 

Q. How long have you been so engaged? A. In the position I now hold 
since the 5th of January, 1865. 

Q. How long have you been in the business of reporting? A. For some¬ 
thing over eighteen years. 

Q. Were you employed, and if so by whom, to make a report of the Pres¬ 
ident's speech in August, 1866? A. I was employed at the instance of 
one of the agents of the Associated Press at Washington. 

Q. Who aided in this report? A. Mr. James 0. Clephane and Mr. James 
B. Sheridan. 

Q. Did you make such report? A. I did. 

Q. Have you got your shorthand notes? A. I have. 

Q. Here? A. Yes sir. 

Q. Produce them. A. I will do so (producing a note-book). 

Q. After you had made your shorthand report, what did you do then? A. 
In company with Mr. Clephane and Mr. Sheridan, I retired to one of the 
offices of the Executive Mansion and wrote out a portion of my notes. 

Q. What did the others do? A. The others wrote out portions of the 
same speech. 


13 





8o 


Q. What was done with the portion that you wrote? A. It was deliv¬ 
ered to Colonel Moore, private secretary of the President, sheet by 
sheet as written by me, for revision. 

Q. How came you to deliver it to Colonel Moore? A. I did it at his 
request. 

Q. What did he do with it? A. He read it over and made certain al¬ 
terations . 

Q, Was the President present while that was being done? A. He was 
not. 

Q. Had Colonel Moore taken any memoranda of the speech, to your knowl¬ 
edge? A. I am not aware whether he had or not. 

Q. Did Colonel Moore show you any means by which he knew wha,t the 
President meant to say, so that he could correct the speech? A. He did 
not. He stated to me prior to the delivery of the speech that he de¬ 
sired permission to revise the manuscript, simply to correct the phrase¬ 
ology, not to make any change in any substantial matter. 

Q. (Handing to the witness the manuscript last produced by C. A. Tin¬ 
ker.) Will you look and see whether you can find any portion of the man¬ 
uscript that you wrote out there? A. I recognize some portion of it. 

Q. Separate it as quickly as you can. 

(The witness separated the sheets written by him.) 

A. I find what I wrote in two different portions of the speech. 

Q. Have you now got the portions, occurring, you 6ay, in two differ¬ 
ent portions of the speech, which you wrote out? A. I have. 

Q. Are there any corrections on that manuscript? A. There are quite 
a number. 

Q. In whose handwriting, if you know? A. In the handwriting of Colo¬ 
nel Moore, so far as I see. 

Q. Have you written out from your notes since the speech? A. I have. 

Q. (Handing a manuscript to the witness.) Is that it? A. It is. 

Q. Is that speech, as written out by you, a correct transcript of 
your notes? A. (Having examined the manuscript.) It is, with the ex¬ 
ception of two important corrections, which I handed to the committee a 
day or two afterward. I do not see them here. 

Q. Do you remember what they were? A. In the sentence ”I could ex¬ 
press more by remaining silent and letting silence speak what I should 
and what I ought to say,” I think the correction was "and letting si¬ 
lence speak and you infer,” the words "you infer” having been accidental¬ 
ly omitted. The other I do not see: it is the insertion of the word 
"overruling” before the words "unerring Providence.” 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) Is the last paper that has been shown you a tran¬ 
script of the whole speech? A. Of the entire speech. 

Q. And from your notes exclusively? A. From my notes exclusively. 

Q. Have you any doubt that the transcript that you made at the Execu¬ 
tive Mansion from your notes was correctly made? A. I have no doubt 
the transcript I made from my notes at the Executive Mansion was substan¬ 
tially correctly made. I remember that, having learned that the manu- 

14 








8 i 


script was to be revised, I took the liberty of making certain revisions 
myself as I went along, correcting ungrammatical expressions and chang¬ 
ing the order of words in sentences In certain instances--corrections of 
that sort. 

Q. Those two liberties, then, you took in writing out your own notes? 
A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Have you ever made any examination to see what changes you thus 
made? A. I have not. 

Q. And you cannot now point them out? A. I cannot now point them 
out. 

Q. You have made a more recent transcript from your notes? A. Yes, 
sir. 

Q. Did you allow yourself the same liberties in that? A. I did not. 

Q. That, then, you consider a transcript of the notes as they are? A 
A literal transcript of the notes as they are, and as they were taken. 

Q. Do you report by the same system of sound, Phonography, as it is 
called, that was spoken of by Mr. Sheridan? A. I hardly know what sys¬ 
tem I do report by. I studied shorthand when I was a boy going to 
school, a system of Phonography as then publisht by Andrews & Boyle, 
which I have used for my own purposes since then, and made various chan¬ 
ges from year to year. 

Q. Can you phonographic reporters write out from one another's notes? 
A. I do not think any one could write out my notes except myself. 

Q. Can you write out anybody else's? A. Probably not, unless writ¬ 
ten with a very great degree of accuracy and care. 


JAMES 0. CLEPHANE recalled. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler-.-handing to the witness a part of the manu¬ 
script last produced by C. A. Tinker.) You have already told us that 
you took the speech and wrote it out. -Is what I now hand you the manu¬ 
script of your writing out? A. It is. 

Q. Has it any corrections upon it? A. It has quite a number. 

Q. Who made those? A. I presume they were made by Colonel Moore. 

Ho took the manuscript as I wrote it. I cannot testify positively as re¬ 
gards his handwriting. I am not sufficiently familiar with it. 

q. Was that manuscript as you wrote it a correct copy of the speech 

as made? A. I cannot say that I adhered as closely to the notes in pre¬ 
paring this report as I did in regard to the Chronicle. 

Q. Was it substantially accurate? A. It was. 

Q. Did you in any case change the sense? A. Not at all, sir; merely 
the form of expression. 

Q. And the form of expression, why? A. Oftentimes it tended to ob¬ 
scure the meaning, and for that reason it was changed; or the sentence, 
perhaps, was an awkward one, and it was changed to make it more readable. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) What rules of change did you prescribe to your¬ 
self in the deviations you made from your phonographic notes? A. As I 

15 





82 


have said, I merely changed the form of expression in order, perhaps, to 
make the meaning more intelligible or the sentence less awkward. 

Q. That is to say, when the meaning did not present itself to you as 
it should, you made it clearer, did you? A. I will state, sir, Mr, 
Johnson is in the habit of using quite often-- 

Q, I do not ask you about Mr. Johnson. What I askt you was this: 

When the meaning did not present itself to you as it should, you made it 
clearer? A. I do not know that I in any case altered the meaning. 

Q. But you made the meaning clearer? A. I endeavored to do so. 

Q. And you did, did you not? A. I cannot say whether I succeeded or 

not. 

Q. That was one rule; what other rule of change did you allow your¬ 
self. A. No other. 

Q. No grammatical improvement? A. Yes, sir; I may say, if you will 
allow me, that very often the singular verb was used where perhaps the 
plural ought to be. 

Q. You corrected, then, the grammar? A. Yes, sir; in some instances. 

Q. Can you suggest any other rule of change? A. I cannot at the 

present time. 


WILLIAM G. MOORE sworn and examined. 

Q, (By Mr. Manager Butler.) What is your rank? A, I am a paymaster 
in the army with the rank of major. 

Q. When were you appointed? A. On the 14th day of November, 1866. 

Q. Did you ever pay anybody? A. No, sir; not with government funds. 
(Laughter.) 

Q. What has been your duty? A. I have been on duty at the Executive 
Mansion. 

Q. What kind of duty? A. I have been acting in the capacity of sec¬ 
retary to the President. 

Q. Were you so acting before you were appointed? A. I was. 

Q. How long had you acted as secretary before you were appointed ma¬ 
jor? A. I was directed to report to the President in person in the 
month of November, 1865. 

Q. Had you been in the army prior to that time? A. I had been a ma¬ 
jor and assistant adjutant general. 

Q. In the War Department? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Did you hear the President's speech of the 18th of August, 1866? 

A. I did. 

Q. Did you take any notes of it? A. I did not. 

Q. (Placing the manuscript last produced by Mr. C. A. Tinker before 
the witness.) Look at the manuscript which lies before you and see 
whether you corrected it. (The witness proceeded to examine the manu¬ 
script.) I do not care whether you corrected it all; did you correct 
any portion of it? A. Yes, sir. 

Q, Where were the corrections made? A. In an apartment in the Execu¬ 
tive Mansion. 

Q, Who was in the apartment when you made the corrections? A. 

16 




83 


Messrs. Francis H. Smith, James B. Sheridan, James 0. Clephane, and, I 
think, Mr. Holland, of the Associated Press. 

Q. Had you any memorandum from the President by which to correct it? 

A. None, sir. 

Q. Do you claim to have the power of remembering, on hearing a speech, 
what a man says? A. I do not, sir. 

Q. Do you not know that the President, on that occasion, had been ex¬ 
ercising his great constitutional right of freedom of speech? A. The 
Witness: Will you repeat that question, if you please? 

Mr. Manager Butler: Did you not know that on that occasion the Presi¬ 
dent had been exercising his great constitutional right of freedom of 
speech? 

Mr. Curtis: That puts a question of law to the witness, and I do not 
think it is admissible. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I am not asking a question of law, but a question 
of fact, (To the witness.) Did you not so understand it? A. I so un¬ 
derstood it, sir, 

Mr. Stanbery: Then we are to understand the fact that it was constitu¬ 
tional to exercise freedom of speech? 

Mr. Manager Butler: In the idea of the President and this witness, he 
thinks it is constitutional to exercise it in this way. It may be con¬ 
stitutional, but I think not decent. 

Mr. Stanbery: That is a matter of taste. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Now, then, sir, how dare you correct the 
President's great constitutional right of freedom of speech without any 
memorandum to do it by? A. It was an authority I assumed. 

Q. How came you to assume the authority to exercise this great consti¬ 
tutional right for the President? A. Well, that is a difficult ques¬ 
tion to answer. 

Mr. Evarts: It ought to be a difficult one to ask. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Why should you assume the authority to 
correct his speech? A. My object was, as the speech was an extemporane¬ 
ous one, simply to change the language, and not to change the substance. 

Q. Did you change the substance anywhere? A. Not that I am aware of. 

Q. Are there not pages there where your corrections are the most of 
it? A. I am not aware of that fact. 

Q. Look and see if there is not a larger number of corrections on 
some pages? A. (After examining the manuscript.) In the hasty examina¬ 
tion that I have made, I find no one page--perhaps there may be a single 
exception--where my writing predominates. There is a page in which sev¬ 
eral lines are erased; but whether or not I erased them I cannot say. 

Q. Do you know of anybody else that had anything to do with revising 
it? A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you do that revision by the direction of the President? A. I 
did not, sir, so far as I can recollect. 

Q. He did not direct you? A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you say to Mr. Smith then and there that you did it by the di¬ 
rection of the President? A. Not that I remember. 

Q. Do you mean to say that you made these alterations and corrections 

17 



8 4 


upon the very solemn occasion of this speech without any authority what¬ 
ever? A. That is my impression. 

Q. After you made the revision did you show it to the President? A. 
No, sir. 

Q, Did you ever tell him that you had taken that liberty with his con¬ 
stitutional rights? A. I cannot recall the fact that I did. 

Q. What did you do with the manuscript? A. The manuscript, as it 
was revised, was handed, I think, to the agent of the Associated Press, 
who dispatcht it from the office in order that it might be publisht in 
the afternoon papers. 

Q. Was it publisht in the papers? A. I think it was. 

Q. Have you any doubt of that? A. I cannot say positively, as I 
have not examined the papers. That was the object. 

Q. Was the speech--whether correctly or not I do not ask--but was 
that speech, purporting to come from the President, publisht in the Asso¬ 
ciated Press despatches? A. I do not know. I refer more to the city 
papers than to those to which the Associated Press furnisht information. 

Q. Wa3 the same speech publisht in the Intelligencer? A. The speech 
was publisht in the Intelligencer. 

Q. Is that newspaper taken at the Executive Mansion? A. It is. 

Q. Was it at that time? A. It was at that time. 

Q. Seen by the President? A. Yes, sir; I presume it was. 

Q. Did he ever chide you, or say anything to you that you had done 
wrong in the correction, or had misrepresented him in this speech at all? 
A. He did not. 

Q. Even down to this day? A. He has never chided or rebuked me for 
the correction of a speech. 

Q. Has he ever said there was anything wrong about it? A. I have 
never heard him say so. 


MO CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I now propose, with your Honor's leave and the 
Senate's, to read the speech as corrected by Colonel Moore, unless that 
is objected to. If that is objected to I propose to put in evidence the 
report of Mr. Smith, the Associated Press report, and the report of the 
Chronicle, reading one only. You are aware, sir, that the President com¬ 
plains in his answer that we do not give the whole speech. We have now 
brought all the versions that we can conveniently of his whole speech, 
and if not objected to we will put them all in. Otherwise I will only 
put in the extracts. 

Mr. Evarts: What version do you now offer? 

Mr. Manager Butler: All; hoping to get the truth out of the whole of 

them. 

Mr. Evarts: The speech as proved now by the witnesses in the version 
which past under Colonel Moore's eye? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I think I must ask that the objection, if any is 

to be taken to my offer, shall be put in writing. 

Mr. Evarts: Before it is made? 

Mr'. Manager Butler: No, sir; as it is made, 

18 




85 


Mr. Evarts: Well, the speech as proved in Mr. Smith's and Mr, Sheri¬ 
dan's copy we regard as in the shape of evidence, the accuracy of the re¬ 
port to be judged of, there being competent evidence on the subject. 

The speech in the Chronicle we do not understand to be supported by any 
such evidence, and we shall object to that as not authentically proved. 
The speech in the Intelligencer, which seems to have been supported in 
the intent of the honorable managers by proof of that newspaper being 
taken at the Executive Mansion has not been produced, and has not been 
offered, as I understand. 

Mr. Manager Butler: No. 

Mr. Evarts: Therefore we dismiss that. The Chronicle speech, then, 
we consider not proved by authentic evidence submitted to the court. 

The stenographic reports in the two forms indicated we suppose have 
proof to support them, which is competent, and enable the court under 
competent evidence to judge of their accuracy, their accuracy to be the 
subject of remark, of course, as the cause proceeds, and v/ithout desir¬ 
ing here to anticipate the discussion as to whether any evidence concern¬ 
ing them (as we have excepted and objected in our answer to the tenth 
and eleventh articles) is admissible. Saving that for the purpose of 
discussion in the body of the case, we make no other objection to the 
reading of the speeches. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Do you want the whole of them read? We are con¬ 
tent with one, the others being subject to be used by either party. 

Mr. Evarts: Whichever version you put in evidence we wish read. 

Mr. Manager Butler: We put all versions in evidence, and we will read 
one. 

Mr. Evarts: We should like to have the one read that you rely on. 

Mr. Tipton: Mr. Chief Justice, I move that we now take a recess of 
fifteen minutes. 

Mr. Trumbull: Before that motion is put I wish to put it in the form 
of an adjournment until three o'clock, that we may do some legislative 
business. ("No, no.") There is a rule that ought to be altered, and if 
the senator from Nebraska will allow me I will move that the court ad¬ 
journ until three o'clock. 

The Chief Justice: The senator from Illinois proposes that the court 
adjourn until three o'clock, 

Mr. Johnson: What for? 

The Chief Justice: The senator from Illinois will state the object of 
the adjournment. 

Mr. Johnson: I think the honorable member did state the purpose, but 
I did not hear him. 

The Chief Justice: The senator from Illinois states that he desires 
an adjournment for the purpose of taking up a rule in legislative ses¬ 
sion. You who are in favor of adjourning until three o'clock will say 
ay; the contrary opinion, no. 

The motion was not agreed to. 

The Chief Justice: The question now is on the motion of the senator 
from Nebraska (Mr. Tipton). 

Mr. Drake: I suggest an amendment to the motion of the senator from 
Nebraska, that we take a recess for twenty minutes. 

19 






86 


The Chief Justice: The Chair will put the question on the longest 
time first. » The motion is to take a recess for twenty minutes. 

The motion was not agreed to. 

The Chief Justice: The question now recurs on the motion of the sena¬ 
tor from Nebraska, to take a recess for fifteen minutes. 

The motion was agreed to; and at the expiration of fifteen minutes the 
Chief Justice resumed the chair, and called the Senate to order at two 
o'clock and forty-five minutes p. m. 

Mr. Grimes: I move that this court stand adjourned until Monday at 
twelve o'clock. 

Mr. Conness: I hope not. 

Mr. Drake: I ask for the yeas and nays upon that motion. 

The Chief Justice: It is moved that the Senate adjourn until Monday 
at 12 o'clock, and on this question the yeas and nays are demanded. 

The yeas and nays were not ordered. 

Mr. Drake: The rule requires us to sit every day. 

Mr. Johnson: No, it does not. It is "unless otherwise ordered." 

The Chief Justice: The question is on the motion to adjourn. 

Mr. Sumner: The yeas and nays have been called for. 

The Chief Justice: There was not a sufficient number rising to demand 
the yeas and nays, and they were not ordered. 

Mr. Sumner: Then there was a misapprehension, if the chair will par¬ 
don me. 

The Chief Justice: The Chief Justice will put the question again on 
ordering the yeas and nays. 

The yeas and nays were ordered; and, being taken, resulted--yeas 19, 
nays 28. 

So the motion was not agreed to. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I now offer the version of the speech sworn to by 
Mr. Smith: 

SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AUGUST 18, 1866, 

The President said: 

Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Committee: Language is inade¬ 
quate to express the emotions and feelings of this occasion; and per¬ 
haps I could express more by remaining silent and letting silence 
speak what would and what I ought to say. I confess, tho--having 
had some experience in public life, having been before many public 
audience8--I confess the present occasion and audience is well calcu¬ 
lated, and not only well calculated, but has, in fact, partially 
overwhelmed me. I have not language to express, or to convey, as I 
have said, in an adequate manner, the feelings and emotions produced 
by the present occasion. In listening to the address that your dis- 
tinguisht and eloquent chairman has just delivered, the proceedings 
of the convention, as they transpired, recur to my mind, and, seem¬ 
ingly, that I partook here of the enthusiasm which seemed to prevail 
there. And upon the reception of the dispatch, sent by two distin- 
guisht members of that convention, conveying in terms the scenes 
that have just been described, of South Carolina and Massachusetts 

20 





87 


arm in arm, marching into that convention giving evidence that the 
two extremes could come together, that they could peril in future, 
for the preservation of the Union, as they had in the past, when the 
accompanying statement that in that vast assembly of distinguisht, 
eloquent, and intellectual persons that were there, every face was 
suffused with tears--when I undertook to read the dispatch to one as¬ 
sociated with me in office, I could not give utterance to the feel¬ 
ings it produced, (Applause.) 

I think we may justly conclude we are moving under proper inspira¬ 
tions; I think I cannot be mistaken that an unerring Providence is 
in this matter. The nation is imperiled; it has just past thru a 
mighty, bloody, and momentous ordeal; and while we have past thru 
that we do not find ourselves free from difficulties and dangers 
that surround us. While our brave men have performed their duties 
in the field--officers and men--while they have won laurels that are 
imperishable, there are still greater and more important duties yet 
to perform; and while we have had their cooperation in the field we 
want their support out of the field when we are trying to bring 
about peace. 

Every effort has been made, so far as the executive department of 
the government was concerned, to restore the Union; to heal the 
breach; to pour oil into the wound which had been inflicted, and--to 
speak in common phrase--to prepare, as the learned and wise physi¬ 
cian would, a plaster that was coextensive with the wound, and that 
was healing in its character. (Applause.) 

We think, or thought, we had partially succeeded; but as the work 
progrest, as reconciliation seemed to be restored and the country be¬ 
come united, we found a disturbing and marring element of opposition 
thrown in; and in making any allusion to that, I shall make no more 
allusion than has been in the convention and by the distinguisht gen¬ 
tleman who has placed the proceedings of the convention before me-- 
I shall make no more allusion than I think the times justify. We 
have witnest in one department of the government every effort, as it 
were, to prevent the restoration of peace, harmony, and union; we 
have seen, as it were, hanging upon the verge of the government, as 
it were, a body, calling or assuming to be the Congress of the Uni¬ 
ted States, when it was but a Congress of a part of the States; we 
have seen Congress assuming to be for the Union when every step they 
took was to perpetuate dissolution, and make disruption permanent. 

We have seen every step that has been taken, instead of bringing 
about reconciliation and harmony, has been legislation that took the 
character of penalties, retaliation, and revenge. This has been the 
course; this has been the policy of one department of your govern¬ 
ment, The humble individual who has been addrest here to-day, and 
now stands here before you, has been occupying another department of 
the government. The manner of his getting there I shall not allude 
to now--8uffice it to say, I was there by the Constitution of my 
country (applause), and being there by the Constitution of my coun¬ 
try, I placed my foot upon the Constitution as the great rampart of 
civil and religious liberty (applause), having been taught in early 

21 




88 


life, and having practist through my whole career, to venerate, re¬ 
spect, and make the Constitution of my fathers my guide thru my pub¬ 
lic life. (Applause.) 

I know it has been said, and I must be permitted to indulge in 
this line, that the executive department of the government has been 
despotic and tyrannical. Why, lot me ask this audience here to-day, 
and the distinguisht gentlemen who stand around me; where is the 
vote I ever gave, where is the speech I ever made, where is a single 
act of my whole public life but what has been arrayed against tyran¬ 
ny and against despotism? (Applause.) What position have I ever oc¬ 
cupied, what ground have I ever stood upon, when I failed to advo¬ 
cate the amelioration and elevation of the great mass of my country¬ 
men? (Applause.) 

So far as charges of that kind is concerned, it is simply intended 
to deceive and delude the public mind, that there is some one in pow¬ 
er who is seeking to trample upon and pervert the principles of the 
Constitution by endeavoring to cover and delude the people so far as 
their own public acts are concerned. I have felt it my duty, in vin¬ 
dication of the principles of the Constitution of my country, to 
call their attention to these proceedings; but when we go forward 
and examine who has been playing tyrant, and where has been the ty¬ 
ranny and despotism exercised, the elements of my nature, and the 
pursuits of my life, has not made me in my practise aggressive, nor 
in my feelings: but, my nature, rather on the contrary, is defensive; 
and having placed my feet, or taken my stand upon the broad princi¬ 
ples of liberty and the Constitution, there is not enough power on 
earth to drive me from it. (Great applause.) 

Upon that broad platform I have taken my stand. I have not been 
awed, or dismayed, or intimidated by their words or encroachments; 
but I have stood there, in conjunction with patriotic spirits, sound¬ 
ing the tocsin of alarm that the citadel of liberty was encroacht 
upon. (Applause . ) 

I said on one occasion before, and I repeat now, that all that was 
necessary in this great struggle was here, in the contest with tyran¬ 
ny and despotism, was for the struggle to be sufficiently audible 
that the great mass of the American people could hear the struggle 
that was going on, and when they understood and heard the struggle 
going on, and came up and lookt in and saw who the contestants were, 
and understood about what that contest was, they would settle that 
question upon the side of the Constitution and principle. (“Good.") 

It has been said here to-day, my faith is abiding in the great 
mass of the people. It is; and in the darkest moment of the strug¬ 
gle, when the clouds seemed to be the most lowering, my faith, in¬ 
stead of giving way, loomed up as from the gloom of the cloud, thru 
which I saw that all would be safe in the end. 

But tyranny and despotism! We all know that tyranny and despotism, 
even in the language of Thomas Jefferson, can be exercised, and exer¬ 
cised more effectually by many than one. We have seen Congress or¬ 
ganized; we have seen Congress in its advance, step by step, has 
gradually been encroaching upon constitutional rights and violating 

22 






89 


the fundamental principles of the government, day after day, and 
month after month. We have seen a Congress that seemed to forget 
that there was a Constitution of the United States, that there was 
limits, that there was boundaries to the sphere or scope of legisla¬ 
tion. We have seen Congress in a minority assume to exercise, and 
have exercised, powers, if carried out and consummated, will result 
in despotism or monarchy itself. This is truth, and because I and 
ethers have seen proper to appeal to the country, to the patriotism 
and republican feeling of the country, I have been denounced; slan¬ 
der after slander, vituperation after vituperation of the most viru¬ 
lent character, has made its way thru the press. What, then, has 
been my sin? What has been your sin? What has been the cause of 
your offending? Because you dare stand by the Constitution of our 
fathers. (Applause.) 

I look upon the proceedings of this convention as being more im¬ 
portant than any convention that ever sat in the United States. (Ap¬ 
plause.) When I look at that collection of citizens coming together 
voluntarily and sitting in council, with ideas, with principles and 
views commensurate with all the States and co-extensive with the 
whole people; and when I contrast it with a collection of gentlemen 
who were trying to destroy the country, I look upon it as more im¬ 
portant than any convention that has sat, at least, since 1787; and 
I think I may say here, too, that in the declarations it has made, 
which are equally important with the Declaration of Independence it¬ 
self; and I here, to-day, pronounce it a second declaration of inde¬ 
pendence. (Great applause.) 

In this connection, I may remark, when you talk about declarations 
of independence, there are a great many people in the United States 
who want to be free, that cannot claim, exactly, and in fact, that 
they are free at this time. I may say that your address and the dec¬ 
larations made are nothing more nor less than a reaffirmation of the 
Constitution of the United States. (Great applause.) Yes, I will 
go further, and say that the declarations that you have there made, 
and the principles enunciated in that address, is a second proclama¬ 
tion of emancipation to the people of the United States (applause), 
for in the promulgation, in the proclamation, reaffirming these 
great truths, you have laid down a platform, a constitutional plat¬ 
form, upon which all can make common cause, and stand, rallying for 
the restoration of the States and the restoration of the Union, with¬ 
out reference to whether they belong to this association, or this 
party, or that party; but the theory is, my country rises above par¬ 
ty. Upon this common ground they can stand. (Applause.) 

How many are there in the United States that now require to be 
free? They have got shackles upon their limbs and are bound as 
tight as tho they were, in fact, in slavery. Then, I repeat, it is 
a second proclamation of emancipation to the people of the United 
States, and fixes a common ground upon which all may stand. 

I have 6aid more now, Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the committee, 
than I intended to have said; but, in this connection, and in conclu¬ 
sion, let me ask this intelligent audience and committee here to-day, 

23 





90 


what have I or you to do other than the promotion or advancement of 
the common weal? I am opposed to egotism--as much so as any one-- 
but here, in a conversational manner, and in the reception of the 
proceedings of this convention, I must add, what have I to gain, con¬ 
sulting human ambition, more than I have gained, excepting one thing? 
My race is run. I have been placed here by the Constitution of the 
country, and I may say here, from the lowest to the highest position 
in the government I have occupied. I past thru every single posi¬ 
tion from alderman in a village to the presidency of the United 
States; and now, in standing before you, don't you think that all 
reasonable ambition should be gratified? If I wanted power, if I 
wanted to perpetuate my own power and that of those who are around 
me, how easy it would have been for me to have held the power placed 
in my hands. 

With the bill called the Freedmen's Bureau, and the army placed at 
my discretion (laughter and applause), I could have remained at the 
capital with fifty or sixty millions of appropriations, with the ma¬ 
chinery to be workt by my own hands, with my satraps and dependents 
in every township and civil district in the United States where it 
might be necessary, with the Civil Rights bill coming along as an 
auxiliary (laughter) and all the other patronage of the government, 

I could have proclaimed myself dictator. ("That's a fact.") My 
pride and my power is, if I have any, to occupy that position which 
retains the power in the hands of the people. ("Good" and applause.) 
It is upon them I have always relied; it is upon them I now rely. 
("And they will not desert you either"--applause.) And I repeat, 
neither the taunts nor jeers of Congress, nor of a subsidized and 
calumniating press, can drive me from my purpose. (Applause.) 

I acknowledge no superior but two--my God, the author of my exist¬ 
ence, and the people of the United States. (Applause.) The one, I 
try to obey all his commands as best I can, compatible with mortal 
man; the other, in a political and representative sense, the high be¬ 
hest of the people has always been in strict respect, has always 
been obeyed by me. (Applause.) 

Mr. Chairman, I have said more than I intended to say. For the 
kind allusions made in the address and in the resolutions or proposi¬ 
tions adopted by your convention, I want to say to you that in this 
crisis, in this period of my public life, I prize that last resolu¬ 
tion, more than all that has come to me. To have the indorsement of 
a convention, constituted as that was, emanating spontaneously from 
the great mass of the people, I prize it above consideration, and I 
trust and hope my future conduct will not cause the convention that 
adopted that to have regretted the assurance they have given. 

("Very sure of it.") 

Before separating, and leaving you, gentlemen, one and all, commit¬ 
tee and strangers, please accept my thanks for this kind manifesta¬ 
tion of regard and respect that you have manifested on this occasion, 
and to one that feels so little entitled to it, except upon the sim¬ 
ple consideration of having performed his duty. 

I repeat again, as I have said in substance, that I have, and 

24 









9i 


shall always continue to be guided by a conscientious conviction. 

That always gives me courage. The Constitution I have made my guide. 
Then, accept my sincere thanks for this manifestation of your appro¬ 
bation and regard. 

Mr. Manager Butler, having concluded the reading, continued: 

I do not propose, gentlemen, to read any more of these versions, but 
to leave them here for any correction that may be desired. 

Mr. Anthony: I offered an order in legislative session, and I do not 
know that it is proper to call it up at this time. If not, I should 
like to repeat it. 

The Chief Justice: The Chief Justice thinks it is not in order to 
call up any business transacted in legislative session. 

Mr. Conkling (To Mr. Anthony): Offer it originally now, 

Mr. Anthony: Then I move that the presiding officer be authorized to 
assign a place upon the floor to the reporter of the Associated Press. 

Mr. Conkling: A single reporter. 

The Chief Justice: The Chief Justice thinks it not in order to inter¬ 
rupt the business of the trial with such a motion. 

Mr. Evarts: General Butler, will you allow us to ask what copies or 
versions of the speech of August 18, 1866, you consider included in the 
testimony received? One has been read. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I consider the two copies, one that Mr. Smith 
made, which has been read, and the corrected version, as the substantial 
copies. 

Mr. Evarts: And no others? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I do not offer the Chronicle, not because it is 
not evidence, but because I have the same thing in Mr. Smith's report. 

Mr. Evarts: Then it is only those two, and they will both be printed 
as part of the evidence in the case? 

Mr. Manager Butler: For aught I care. 

The other report offered in evidence--the one revised by Colonel Moore 
and publisht--i8 as follows: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: Language is inade¬ 
quate to express the emotions and feelings produced by this occasion. 
Perhaps I could express more by permitting silence to speak and you 
to infer what I ought to say. I confess that, notwithstanding the 
experience I have had in public life, and the audiences I have ad- 
drest, this occasion and this assembly are well calculated to, and 
do, overwhelm me. As I have said, I have not language to convey ade¬ 
quately my present feelings and emotions. In listening to the ad¬ 
dress which your eloquent and distinguisht chairman has just deliv¬ 
ered, the proceedings of the convention, as they transpired, re¬ 
curred to my mind. Seemingly I partook of the inspiration that pre¬ 
vailed in the convention when I received a dispatch sent by two of 
its distinguisht members, conveying in terms the scene which has 
ju81 been described of South Carolina and Massachusetts, arm in arm, 
marching into that vast assemblage, and thus giving evidence that 
the two extremes had come together again, and that for the future 
they were united as they had been in the past, for the preservation 
of the Union. When the dispatch informed me that in that vast body 

25 







92 


of men, distinguisht for intellect and wisdom, every eye was suf¬ 
fused with tears on beholding the scene, I could not finish reading 
the dispatch to one associated with me in the office, for my own 
feelings overcame me. (Applause.) 

I think we may justly conclude that we are moving under a proper 
inspiration, and that we need not be mistaken that the finger of an 
overruling and unerring Providence is in this matter. The nation is 
in peril. We have just past through a mighty, a bloody, a momentous 
ordeal, yet do not find ourselves free from the difficulties and dan¬ 
gers that at first surrounded us. While our brave men have per¬ 
formed their duties, both officers and men (turning to General Grant, 
who stood at his right), while they have won laurels imperishable, 
there are still greater and more important duties to perform; and 
while we have had their cooperation in the field, we now need their 
support in our efforts to perpetuate peace. (Applause.) So far as 
the executive department of the government is concerned, the effort 
has been made to restore the Union, to heal the breach, to pour oil 
into the wounds which were consequent upon the struggle, and, to 
speak in common phrase, to prepare, as the learned and wise physi¬ 
cian would, a plaster, healing in character and coextensive with the 
wound. (Applause.) We thought, and yet think, that we had partial¬ 
ly succeeded, but as the work progrest, as reconciliation seemed to 
be taking place, and the country becoming united, we found a disturb¬ 
ing and marring element opposing us. 

In alluding to that element I shall go no further that did your 
convention and the distinguist gentleman who has delivered to me the 
report of its proceedings. I shall make no reference to it that I 
do not believe the time and the occasion justify. We have witnest 
in one department of the government every effort, as it were, to pre¬ 
vent the restoration of peace and harmony in the Union. We have 
seen hanging upon the verge of the government, as it were, a body 
called, or which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States-- 
but, in fact, a Congress of only part of the States. We have seen 
this Congress assume and pretend to be for the Union, when its every 
step and act tended to perpetuate disunion and make a disruption of 
the States inevitable. Instead of promoting reconciliation and har¬ 
mony, its legislation has partaken of the character of penalties, re¬ 
taliation, and revenge. This has been the course and the policy of 
one department of your government. The humble individual who is now 
addressing you stands the representative of another department of 
the government. The manner in which he was called upon to occupy 
that position I shall not allude to on this occasion; suffice it to 
say that he is here under the Constitution of the country, and being 
here by virtue of its provisions, he takes his stand upon that char¬ 
ter of our liberties as the great rampart of civil and religious lib¬ 
erty. (Prolonged cheering.) Having been taught in my early life to 
hold it sacred, and having practist upon it during my whole public 
career, I shall ever continue to reverence the Constitution of my fa¬ 
thers and to make it my guide. (Hearty applause.) I know it has 
been said--and I must be permitted to indulge in this remark--that 

26 




93 


the executive department of the government has been despotic and ty¬ 
rannical. Let me ask this audience of distinguisht gentlemen around 
me here to-day to point to a vote I ever gave, to a speech I ever 
made, to a single act of my whole public life, that has not been 
against tyranny and despotism. What position have I ever occupied, 
what ground have I ever assumed, where it can be truthfully charged 
that I failed to advocate the amelioration and elevation of the 
great masses of my countrymen! (Cries of "Never", and great ap¬ 
plause . ) 

So far as charges of that kind are concerned, I will say that they 
are simply intended to deceive and delude the public mind into the 
belief that there is some one in power who is usurping and trampling 
upon the rights and perverting the principles of the Constitution. 

It is done by those who make such charges for the purpose of cover¬ 
ing their own acts. ("That's so," and applause.) I have felt it my 
duty, in vindication of principle and the Constitution of my country, 
to call the attention of my countrymen to these proceedings. When 
we come to examine who has been playing the tyrant, by whom do we 
find that despotism has been exercised? As to myself, the elements 
of my nature, the pursuits of my life, have not made me, either in 
my feelings or in my practise, aggressive. My nature, on the contra¬ 
ry, is rather defensive in its character; but I will say that, hav¬ 
ing taken my stand upon the broad principles of liberty and the Con¬ 
stitution, there is not power enough on earth to drive me from it. 
(Loud and prolonged applause.) Having placed myself upon that broad 
platform, I have not been awed, dismayed, or intimidated by either 
threats or encroachments, but have stood there, in conjunction with 
patriotic spirits, sounding the tocsin of alarm when I deemed the 
citadel of liberty in danger. (Great applause.) I said on a previ¬ 
ous occasion, and repeat now, that all that was necessary in this 
great struggle against tyranny and despotism was that the struggle 
should be sufficiently audible for the American people to hear and 
properly understand. They did hear, and looking on and seeing who 
the contestants were and what that struggle was about, they deter¬ 
mined that they would settle this question on the side of the Con¬ 
stitution and of principle. (Cries of "That's so," and applause.) 

I proclaim here to-day, as I have on other occasions, that my 
faith is abiding in the great mass of the people. In the darkest mo¬ 
ment of this struggle, when the clouds seemed to be most lowering, 
my faith, instead of giving away, loomed up thru the dark cloud far 
beyond--I saw that all would be safe in the end. My countrymen, wo 
all know that, in the language of Thomas Jefferson, "tyranny and des¬ 
potism even can be exercised and exerted more effectually by the 
many than the one." V/o have seen a Congress gradually encroach, 
step by step, upon constitutional rights, and violate, day after day 
and month after month, the fundamental principles of the government. 
(Cries of "That's so!" and applause.) We have seen a Congress that 
seemed to forget that there was a Constitution of tho United States, 
and that there was a limit to the sphere and scope cf legislation. 

We have 6een a Congress in a minority assume to exercise powers 

2? 



94 


which, if allowed to be carried out, would result in despotism or 
monarchy itself. (Enthusiastic applause.) This is truth; and be¬ 
cause others as well as myself have seen proper to appeal to the pa¬ 
triotism and republican feeling of the country we have been de¬ 
nounced in the severest terms. Slander upon slander, vituperation 
upon vituperation, of the most villainous character, has made its 
way thru the press. 

What, gentlemen, has been your and my sin? What has been the 
cause of our offending? I will tell you--daring to stand by the Con¬ 
stitution of-our fathers. 

(Approaching Senator Johnson.) I consider the proceedings of this 
convention, sir, as more important than those of any convention that 
ever assembled in the United States. (Great applause.) When I look 
with my mind's eye upon that collection of citizens, coming together 
voluntarily, and sitting in council with ideas, with principles and 
views commensurate with all the States, and coextensive with the 
whole people, and contrast it with the collection of gentlemen who 
are trying to destroy the country, I regard it as more important 
than any convention that has sat at least since 1787. (Renewed ap¬ 
plause.) I think I may say also that the declarations that were 
there made are equal with the Declaration of Independence itself, 
and I here to-day pronounce it a second Declaration of Independence. 
(Cries of "Glorious," and most enthusiastic and prolonged applause.) 
Your address and declarations are nothing more nor less than a reaf¬ 
firmation of the Constitution of the United States. (Cries of 
"Good!" and applause.) Yes, I will go further, and say that the dec¬ 
larations you have made, that the principles you have enunciated in 
your address, are a second proclamation of emancipation to the peo¬ 
ple of the United States (renewed applause) for in proclaiming and 
reproclaiming these great truths you have laid down a constitutional 
platform upon which all can make common cause, and stand united to¬ 
gether for the restoration of the States and the preservation of the 
government without reference to party. The query only is the salva¬ 
tion of the country, for our country rises above all party considera¬ 
tions or influences. (Cries of "Good!" and applause.) How many are 
there in the United States that now require to be free? They have 
the shackles upon their limbs, and are bound as rigidly as tho they 
were in fact in slavery. I repeat, then, that your declaration is 
the second proclamation of emancipation to the people of the United 
States, and offers a common ground upon which all patriots can stand. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Let me, in this connection, ask you 
what have I to gain more than the advancement of the public welfare? 

I am as much opposed to the indulgence of egotism as any one; but 
here, in a conversational manner, while formally receiving the pro¬ 
ceedings of this convention, I may be permitted again to ask, what 
have I to gain, consulting human ambition, more than I have gained, 
except in one thing? My race is nearly run. I have been placed in 
the high office which I occupy under the Constitution of the country, 
and I may say that I have held, from lowest to highest, almost every 

28 




95 


position to which a man may attain in our government. I have past 
thru every position, from an alderman of a village to the presidency 
of the United States; and surely, gentlemen, this should be enough 
to gratify a reasonable ambition. If I wanted authority, or if I 
wisht to perpetuate ray power, how easy would it have been to hold 
and wield that which was placed in my hands by the measure called 
the "Freedmen's Bureau bill." (Laughter and applause.) With an 
army which it placed at my discretion I could have remained at the 
capital of the nation, and with fifty or sixty millions of appropria¬ 
tions at my disposal, with the machinery to be workt by my own hands, 
with my satraps and dependents in every town and village, and then 
with the "Civil Rights bill" following as an auxiliary (laughter) in 
connection with all the other appliances of the government, I could 
have proclaimed myself Dictator! ("That’s true," and applause.) 

But, gentlemen, my pride and ambition have been to occupy that po¬ 
sition which retains all power in the hands of the people. (Great 
cheering.) It is upon that I have always relied; it is upon that I 
rely now. (A voice--"And the people will not disappoint you.") And 
I repeat, that neither the taunts nor jeers of Congress, nor of a 
subsidized, calumniating press, can drive me from my purpose. 

(Great applause.) I acknowledge no superior except my God, the 
author of my existence, and the people of the United States. (Pro¬ 
longed and enthusiastic cheering.) For the one, I try to obey all 
his commands as best I can compatible with my poor humanity; for the 
other, in a political and representative sense, the high behests of 
the people have always been respected and obeyed by me. (Applause.) 
Mr. Chairman, I have said more than I intended to say. For the kind 
allusions to myself contained in your address, and in the resolu¬ 
tions adopted by the convention, let me remark that, in this crisis, 
and at this period of my public life, I hold above all price, and 
shall ever recur with feelings of profound gratification to the last 
resolution containing the indorsement of a convention emanating spon¬ 
taneously from the great mass of the people, I trust and hope that 
my future action may be such that you and the convention that you 
represent may not regret the assurance of confidence you have ex- 
prest. ("We are sure of it.") Before separating, my friends, one 
and all, committee and strangers, please accept my sincere thanks 
for the kind manifestations of regard and respect you have exhibited 
on this occasion. I repeat, that I shall always continue to be guid¬ 
ed by a conscientious conviction of duty, and that always gives me 
courage, under the Constitution, which I have made my guide. 


WILLIAM N. HUDSON, sworn and examined. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) What is your business? A. I am a jour¬ 
nalist by occupation. 

Q. Where is your home? A. In Cleveland, Ohio. 

Q. What paper do you have charge of? A. The Cleveland Leader. 

Q. Where were you about the 3d or 4th of September, 1066? A. I was 
in Cleveland. 


29 






96 


Q. What was your business then? A. I was then one of the editors of 
the Leader. 

Q. Did you hear the speech that President Johnson made there from the 
balcony of a hotel? A. I did. 

Q. Did you report it? A. I did, with the assistance of another re¬ 
porter . 

Q. Who is he? A. His name is Johnson. 

Q. Was your report publisht in the paper the next day? A. It was. 

Q. Have you a copy? A. I have. 

Q. Will you produce it? 

The witness produced a copy of the Cleveland Leader of September 4, 
1866. 

Q. Have you your original notes? A. I have not. 

Q. Where are they? A. I cannot tell. They are probably destroyed. 

Q. Have you the report in the paper of which you are the editor, 

which was publisht the next day? A. I have the report which I have sub 
mitted. 

Q. What can you say as to the accuracy of that report? A. It is not 

a verbatim report, except in portions. There are parts of it which are 

verbatim, and parts are synopses. 

Q. Does the report distinguish the parts which are not verbatim from 
those which are? A. It does. 

Q. Is all put in that Mr. Johnson did say? 

Mr. Evarts: He says not. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler,) Is anything left out which Johnson said? 
A. Yes. 

Mr. Evarts: Do you mean the President or reporter Johnson? 

Mr. Stanbery: Whom do you mean by Johnson? 

Mr. Evarts: There was another Johnson mentioned. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Not on this occasion. 

Mr. Evarts: Yes, reporter Johnson. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I mean Andrew Johnson "last aforesaid.” 

The witness: The report leaves out some portions of Mr. Johnson's 
speech; states them in synoptical form. 

Q. (By Mr, Manager Butler.) Is there anything put in there that he 
did not say? A. There are words used which he did not use, in stating 
the substance of what he said. There is nothing substantially stated 
that he did not state. 

Q. When was that report prepared by yourself? A. It was prepared on 
the evening of the delivery of the speech. 

Q. Did you see it after it was printed? A. I did. 

Q. Did you examine it? A. I did. 

Q. Now, sir, what can you say as to the accuracy of the report wher¬ 
ever the words are profest to be given? A. To the best of my remem¬ 
brance it is accurate. 

Q. You now believe it to be accurate? A. I do. 

Q. How far do you say it is accurate where substance is profest to be 

given? A. It gives the substance--the sense without the words. 

Q. Taking the synoptical part and the verbatim part, does the whole 
give the substance of what he said on that occasion? A. It does. 


30 





97 


Q. By way of illustration of what I mean, take this part: "Haven't 
you got the court? Haven't you got the Attorney General? Who is your 
Chief Justice?" Is that the synoptical part or is that the verbatim 
part? A. That is part of the verbatim report. 

Mr. Manager Butler CTo the counsel for the respondent): I propose, 
now, gentlemen, to put this in evidence. 

Mr. Evarts: We will cross-examine him before you put the paper in evi¬ 
dence. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Yes, sir. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) Mr. Hudson, was this newspaper that you edited, 
and for which you reported, of the politics of the President or of the 
opposite opinion? A. It was Republican in politics. 

Q. Opposite to the views of the President, as you understand them? A. 
It was. 

Q. At what time was this speech made? A. On the 3d of September, 
1866. 

Q. At what hour of the day? A. About nine in the evening. 

G. It commenced then? A. It commenced. 

Q. When did it conclude? A. I think about a quarter before ten. 

Q, And was there a large crowd there? A. There was. 

Q. Of the people of Cleveland? A. Of the people of Cleveland and 

surrounding towns. 

Q. Was this balcony from which the President spoke also crowded? A. 
Yes. 

Q. And where were you? A. I was upon the balcony. 

Q. What convenience or arrangement had you for taking notes? A. I 
took my notes upon my knee as I sat. 

Q. Where did you get light from? A. From the gas above. 

Q. At what time that evening did you begin to write out your notes? 

A. To the best of my remembrance about eleven o'clock. 

Q. And when did you finish? A. Between twelve and one. 

Q. And when did it go to press? A. About three o'clock in the morn- 
ing_-between three and four. 

Q. Did you write the synoptical parts from your notes, or from your 
recollection of the drift of the speech? A. From my notes. 

Q. You added nothing, you think, to the notes? A. Nothing. 

Q. But you did not produce all that was in the notes? Is that it? A. 

I did not. 

Q. You omitted wholly some parts that were in your notes, did you not? 
A. I endeavored to give the substance of all the President said. 

Q, You mean the meaning, do you not? A. The meaning. 

Q. As you understood it? A. As I understood it. 

Q. That is the drift of it? A. Exactly. 

Q. That is what you mean exactly. You think you meant to give the 

drift of the whole that you did not report verbatim? A. Yes. 

Q. Did you not leave out any of "the drift?" A. Not intentionally. 

Q. But actually? A. Not to my remembrance. 

31 




98 


Q. Have you ever lookt to see? A. I have not compared the speech 
with any full report of it. 

Q. Nor with your notes? A.' I did subsequently compare the speech 
with my notes? 

Q. Do you mean this drift part? A. I mean to say that I compared 
the speech as reported here with my notes. 

Q. I mean the part that is synoptical; did you compare that part with 
your notes? A. I did. 

q. When? A. On the next day, and I have had occasion to refer to it 
several times since. 

Q. When did your notes disappear? A. In the course of a few weeks. 
They were not preserved at all. 

Q. Are you sure, then, that you ever compared it with your notes al¬ 
ter the immediately following day? A. I am. 

Q. Did you destroy your notes intentionally? A. I did not. 

Q. Where are they? A. I cannot tell. 

Q. In regard to the part of the speech which you say you reported ver¬ 
batim, did you at any time, after writing it out that night, compare the 
transcript with the notes? A. I did. 

Q. For the purpose of seeing that it was accurate? A. I did. 

Q. When was that? A. That was on the next day. 

Q. With whose assistance? A. I think without assistance, to the 
best of my remembrance. 

Q. Did you find any changes necessary? A. There were typographical 
errors in the reading of the proof. There were no material errors. 

Q. But were there no errors in your transcript from the notes? A. I 
may have misapprehended the question. I did not compare my manuscript 
transcript; I compared the speech as printed. 

Q. With what? A. With my notes. 

Q. That was not my question; but you say you did compare the speech 
as printed with your notes, and not with your transcript? A. Not with 
the transcript. 

Q. Did you find that there were no errors in the print as compared 
with the original notes? A. There were some typographical errors. 

Q. No others? A. No others to the best of my remembrance. 

Q. Not a word? A. I remember no others. 

Q. Were there any others? A. Not that I remember. 

Q. Are you prepared to say that you observed in comparing your print¬ 
ed paper of that morning with your phonographic notes that the printed 
paper was absolutely accurate? A. My notes were not phonographic. 

Q. What are they? A. They were made in writing. 

Q. Written out in longhand? A. Yes. 

Q. Do you mean to say, sir, that you can write out in longhand, word 

for word, a speech as it comes from the mouth of a speaker? A. I mean 

to say that in this instance I did parts of the speech. 

Q. Then you did not even have notes that were verbatim except for 
part of the speech? A. That was all. 

Q. And then you made your synopsis or drift as it went along? A. 

Yes. 

Q. How, and upon what rule did you select the parts that you snould 

32 



99 


report accurately and those of which you should give "the drift?" A. 
Whenever it was possible to report accurately and fully, I did so. When 
I was unable to keep up with the speaker I gave the substance as I could 
give it. There were times during the speech when, owing to the slowness 
with which the speaker spoke and the interruptions, a reporter was able 
to keep up writing in longhand with the remarks of the President, 
ft. Then that is your report of his speech? A. It is. 
ft. Not by the aid of Phonography or shorthand? A. No. 

Q. Did you abbreviate or write in full the words that you did write? 

A. I abbreviated in many instances. 

Q. Do you remember that? A. I do. 

ft Can you give us an instance of one of your abbreviations that is 
now written out here in full? A. I cannot, 
ft. You cannot recall one? A. I cannot. 

Q. Now, sir, without any printed paper before you, how much of Presi¬ 

dent Johnson's speech, as made at Cleveland on the third of September, 
can you repeat? A. I can repeat none of it. 
ft. None whatever? A. Verbatim, none. 

Q. Do you think you could give "the drift" of some of it? A. I 
think I might. 

ft. As you understand it and remember it? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Do you mean to be understood that you wrote down one single sen¬ 

tence of the President's speech, word for word, as it came from his 
mouth? A. I do. 

ft. Will you point out anywhere any such sentence? A. The sentences 
which were read by the manager were written out word for word. 

ft. Those three questions which he read? Now, do you mean to say that 
any ten consecutive lines of the printed report of your newspaper you 
wrote down in longhand, word for word, as they came from the President's 
mouth? A. I cannot tell how much of it I wrote down at this distance 
of time. It is my impression, however, that there were as much as that, 
and more. 

ft. Can you say anything more than this, that you intended to report 
as nearly as you could and as well, under the circumstances, without the 
aid of shorthand faculty, what the President said? A. I can say, in ad¬ 
dition to that, that there are parts of this speech which were reported 
as he said them. 

Q. From present memory? A. From memory of the method in which those 
notes were taken. 

ft. What parts can you so state? As to all that purports to be ver¬ 
batim are you ready so to swear? A. I cannot swear that it is the abso¬ 
lute language in all cases. I can swear that it is an accurate report. 

ft. What do you mean by an accurate report, and not an absolute report? 
A. I mean to say a report which gives the general form of each sentence 
as it was uttered, perhaps varying in one or two words occasionally. 

ft. I askt you just now if you could say any more than that you intend¬ 
ed to report as well as you could under the circumstances in which you 
were Dlaced and without the aid of shorthand faculty? A. I can say in 
addition to that, that there are portions of this which are reported ver¬ 
batim. 


33 



TOO 


Q. Now, I want you to tell me whether all that purports to be ver¬ 
batim is, in your memory and knowledge, accurately reported? A. It is 
accurately reported; I should not say with absolute accuracy. 

Q. The whole? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now, in regard to the portion of the speech that you did not pro¬ 
fess to report verbatim, what assurance have you that you did not omit 
some part of the speech? A. There are portions which are not given 
with entire fullness; but the substance and meaning in all cases I in¬ 
tended to give. 

Q. What assurance have you that some portions of the speech are not 
omitted entirely from your synoptical view? A. I was able to take 
notes of nearly every sentence uttered by the President, and I am con¬ 
fident that I did not fail to take notes of at least any paragraph of 
the report. 

Q. Any paragraph of the speech! That is to say, you are confident 
that nothing that would have been a paragraph after it was printed was 
left out by you. A. Yes, sir. 

Q. He did not speak in paragraphs, did he? A. Of course not. 

Q,, You are sure you did not leave out what would be the whole of a 
paragraph; did you leave out what would be half of a paragraph? A. I 
endeavored to state the substance of the President's remarks on each sub¬ 
ject which he took up. 

Q. That is the result; that you intended to state the substance of 
his remarks on each subject that he took up. A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And you supposed that you did so? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now, was this synoptical report that you wrote out anything but 
your original notes that you wrote out that night? A. Condenst from 
them. 

Q. Condenst from your original notes? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. That is to say, your original synoptical view, as written down, 
was again reduced in a shorter compend by you that night? A. The part 
of the speech so reported. 

Q. And still you think that in this last analysis you had the whole 
of the President's speech? A. I endeavored to state his meaning. 

Q. Now, can you pretend to say, sir, that in respect to any of that 
portion of your report it is presented in a shape in which any man 
should be judged as coming from his own mouth? 

Mr, Manager Butler: Stop a moment, I object to the question. 

Mr. Evarts: It is as a test of his accuracy. 

Mr. Manager Butler: You may ask him how accurate; I do not object to 
that; but whether he thinks the man should be judged upon it is not a 
proper question. 

Mr. Evarts: I ask him if he professes to state in this synoptical por¬ 
tion of the printed speech made by him it is so produced as to be proper¬ 
ly judged as having come from the mouth of the speaker. 

The Witness: I can only say that it gives, to the best of my belief, 
a fair report of what was seen. 

Q. (By Mr. Evarts.) In your estimate? A. In my estimate. 

Q. And view? A. And belief. 

Q. You spoke of a reporter Johnson, who took part, as I understand you, 

34 



IOI 


in this business; what part did he take? A. He also took notes of the 
speech, 

Q. But independently from you? A. Independently of me. 

Q. But the speech as printed in your paper was made from your notes, 
not from his? A. From mine with the assistance of his. 

Q. Then you brought his in also? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You condenst and mingled the reporter Johnson's report and your 
own, and produced this printed result? A. I did. 

Q. What plan did Johnson proceed with in giving the drift or effect 
of the President's speech? Do you know? A. Johnson took as full notes 
as possible, 

Q. As possible for him? A. As full notes as possible for him of the 
President's speech. 

Q. How much of this report, or how much of this analysis or estimate 
of what the President said, was made out of your notes, and how much out 
of Johnson's? A. The substance of the report was made from my 
notes, the main portion of it. 

Q. What as to the rest? A. Whenever Mr. Johnson's notes were fuller 
than mine I used them to correct mine. 

Q. Was that so in many instances? A. That was not so in a majority 
of instances. 

Q. But in a minority? A. In a minority. 

Q. A considerable minority? A. Considerable. 

Q. Did Johnson write longhand too? A. Yes. 

Q. What connection had Johnson with you or the paper? A. He was the 
reporter of the paper. 

Q, Was there no phonographic reporter to take down this speech? 

A. There was none for our paper. There were reporters present, I 
believe, for other papers; but I cannot swear to that of my own knowl¬ 
edge . 

Mr. Evarts: We submit upon this, Mr. Chief Justice. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Wait for a moment, I have not yet got thru with 
the witness. 

Mr. Evarts: Go on, sir, 

RE-EXAMINATION 

Q. By Mr. Manager Butler, You have been askt, Mr. Hudson, about the 
crowd and about the manner in which you took the speech; were there con¬ 
siderable interruptions? A. There were. 

Q. Were there considerable pauses by the President from step to step 
in his speech? A. There were; and necessary pauses. 

Q. Why "necessary"? A. Because of the interruptions of the crowd. 

Q. Was the crowd a noisy one? A. It was. 

Q. Were they bandying back and forth epithets with the President? 

Mr. Evarts: We object to that. The question is, What was said? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I do not adopt that question. I will repeat my 
question, Whether epithets were thrown back and forward between the Pres¬ 
ident and the crowd. 

Mr. Evarts and Mr. Curtis: We object to the question. The proper 
question is, What was said? 


35 





102 


Hr. Manager Butler: That is your question. 

Mr, Evarts: The question, as put, is leading and assuming a state of 
facts. It is asking if they bandied epithets. Nobody knows what "bandy¬ 
ing” is or what "epithets" are. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Do you know what "bandying" 
means, Mr. Witness? Do you not know the meaning of the word? 

Mr. Curtis: I suppose our objection is first to be disposed of, Mr. 
Chief Justice? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I wanted to see whether, in the first place, I 
had got an intelligible English word. However, I withdraw the question. 
(A pause.) My proposition is this, sir; it is not to give language-- 

Mr. Evarts: There is no objection if you have withdrawn your question. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I have not. I have only withdrawn the question 
as to the meaning of a word which one of the counsel for the President 
did not understand. I was about, sir, stating the question. In Lord 
George Gordon’s case, when he was upon trial, as your honor will remem¬ 
ber, the cries of the crowd were allowed to be put in evidence as cries, 
tho it was objected that they could not be put in evidence. But that 
question precisely is not raised here, because I am now upon the point, 
not of showing what was said, not repeating language, but of showing 
what was said and done by way of interruption. I am following the line 
of cross-examination which was opened to me. It was askt what interrup¬ 
tions there were; whether there was a crowd there; how far he was inter¬ 
rupted; how far he was disturbed; if the President stopt in the midst of 
a speech to put back an epithet which was thrown to him from the crowd, 
and if the crowd was answering back and he replying. If they were answer¬ 
ing backward, and forward, a man could very well write down in longhand 
what he had just said. 

Mr. Evarts: The witness stated that there were interruptions. 

Mr. Manager Butler: And I am following that up. 

Mr. Evarts: That is the only point of your inquiry. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I askt the nature of them to know whether they 
would be likely to disturb a speaker and make him pause. 

Mr. Evarts: The question to which we objected was, "Was there a bandy¬ 
ing of epithets backward and forward between the President and the 
crowd?" 

The Chief Justice: The honorable manager will be good enough to re¬ 
duce his question to writing, 

Mr, Manager Butler: I will not stop to do it in that form, but I will 
put it in another shape. (To the witness.) What was said by the crowd 
to the President, and what was said by the President to the crowd? 

The Witness: The President was frequently interrupted by cheers, by 
hisses, and by cries, apparently from those opposed to him in the crowd. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): You have the right to refresh 
your memory by any memorandum which you have, or copy of memorandum made 
at the time. 

Mr. Evarts: Not a copy. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Yes, sir; any copy of a memorandum which you know 
is a copy made at the time; and state, if you please, what kind of epi¬ 
thets past. 


36 






103 


The witness, placing a newspaper before him, was about to read there¬ 
from. 

Mr. Evarts: We do not regard the newspaper as a memorandum made at 
the time. 

Mr, Manager Butler: He may refer to it. 

Mr. Evarts: Our objection is that it is not a memorandum, 

Mr. Manager Butler: We may as well have that settled at once, if it 
is to be done. When a man says, "I wrote down the best I could, and put 
it in type within four hours of that time, and I know it was correct, 
for I examined it," I insist that on every rule of law in every court 
where any man ever practiet that is a memorandum by which the witness 
may refresh his recollection. 

The Chief Justice: Do the counsel for the President object to the 
proof of the loss of the original notes? 

Mr. Evarts: We do not on this question. This witness is to speak by 
his recollection if he can; if he cannot he is allowed to refresh it by 
the presence of a memorandum which he made at the time. 

Mr. Manager Butler: We deny that to be the rule of law. It may be by 
any memorandum which was correct at the time to his knowledge. On this 
point I am not without authority. In Starke on Evidence is a reference 
to a case 2 Adolphus and Ellis, 210, where it was said: 

In many cases, such as where an agent has been employed to make a 
plan or map and has lost the items of actual admeasurement, all he 
can state is that the plan or map is correct, and has been con¬ 
structed from material which he knew at the time to be true. 

He has then a right to use the map or plan which he made afterward 
having lost his field-notes, to refresh his memory, saying he knew them 
to be true. If the witness puts down these cries at the time and these 
interruptions and these epithets, and he is willing to state that he 
knows them to be true, because he copied them off from his original 
notes, which he has not now, he has a right to refresh his memory by 
that copy. I read again from Starke: 

If the witness be correct in that which he positively states from 
present recollection, namely, that at a prior time he had a perfect 
recollection, and having that recollection, truly stated it in the 
document produced in writing, tho its contents are thus but mediate¬ 
ly proved, must be true. 

Mr. Evarts: If he presently recollects. 

Mr. Manager Butler: The question now is upon his using that memoran¬ 
dum to refresh that recollection. We cannot be drawn from the point. 

The Chief Justice: The honorable manager will please reduce his ques¬ 
tion to writing. 

Mr. Manager Butler having reduced the question to writing read it as 
follows: 

Q. I desire you to refresh your recollection from any memorandum, 
made by you at or near the time which you have, which you know to be 
correct, and from that state what was said by the crowd to the Pres¬ 
ident, and what he said to the crowd. 

Mr. Evarts: That question I do not object to. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Look at the memorandum and go on. 


37 



104 


Mr. Evarts: That is not a memorandum; it is a newspaper. 

The Chief Justice (to the witness): Is that a memorandum made by you 
at the time? 

The Witness: This is a copy of the memorandum made by me at the time. 

The Chief Justice: Are the notes from which you made that memorandum 
lost? 

The Witness: They are. 

The Chief Justice: You may look at it unless there is some objection 
on the part of some Senator. 

Mr. Johnson: Mr. Chief Justice, I do not understand the question askt 
oy the manager. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I do not understand the counsel for the President 
as objecting. 

Mr. Johnson: I am not objecting at all; I only want to know what the 
question is. 

The Chief Justice: It is inquired on the part of the managers what in¬ 
terruptions there were, and the witness is requested to look at a memo¬ 
randum made at the time in order to refresh his memory. Of that memoran¬ 
dum he has no copy, but he made one at the time, and it is lost. The 
Chief Justice rules that he is entitled to look at a paper which he 
knows to be a true copy of that memorandum. If there is any objection 
to that ruling, the question will be put to the Senate. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Go on now, sir, beginning at the 
beginning. 

The Witness (with a newspaper before him): The first interruption of 
the President by the crowd occurred on his referring to-- 

Mr. Evarts: Mr. Chief Justice, we understand the ruling of the court, 
to which of course we submit, to be that the witness is allowed to re¬ 
fresh himself by looking at a memorandum made at the time, which this is 
considered equivalent to, and thereupon state from his memory, thus re- 
fresht, what occurred. He must swear from memory refresht by the memo¬ 
randum, and not by reading the memorandum. 

Mr. Manager Butler: He may read the memorandum to refresh his memory, 
and then testify. 

Mr. Evarts: Yes, sir, but not to read it aloud to us. 

The Chief Justice (to the witness): Look at the memorandum and then 
testify. 

Mr. Manager Butler: You may read it if you please. 

The Witness: The first interruption of the President occurred when he 
referred to the name of General Grant. He said that a large number in 
the crowd desired to see General Grant, and to hear what he had to say, 
whereupon there were three cheers given for General Grant. The Presi¬ 
dent went on, and the next interruption occurred when he spoke of his 
visit, and alluded to the name of Stephen A. Douglas, at which there 
were cheers. The next serious interruption occurred at the time that 
the President used this language: "I was placed upon that ticket,” the 
ticket for the Presidency, ”with a distinguisht citizen now no more;" 
whereupon there were cries, "It's a pity;" "Too bad;" "Unfortunate." 

The President proceeded to say, "Yes, I know there are some who say "un- 
f ortunate." 


38 





105 


Mr. Evarts and Mr. Curtis: That will not do. 

Mr. Manager Butler: What was then done by the crowd? 

The Witness (consulting the newspaper): The President went on to say 
that it was unfortunate for some that God rules on high and deals in jus¬ 
tice, and there were then cheers. 

Mr. Evarts: Mr. Chief Justice, the point made by the learned manager 
was this, that in following his examination of this witness, in order to 
prove that he had times and chances to write out in longhand what the 
President had said, he could show that there were interruptions of space. 
That is the whole matter as I understand it, and now he is reading the 
President's speech, which is not yet in evidence, nor permitted to be 
given in evidence, as a part of the question whether there were interrup¬ 
tions or not to allow him to write it out. 

Mr. Manager Butler: He is, I understand, not giving the President's 
speech, but he is giving such portions only as show where the interrup¬ 
tions come in, because he has skipt long passages. Now, when we compare 
these interruptions with that which he took accurately, we shall see how 
he had time to take verbatim certain portions of the speech. We go on 
unless stopt. 

The Chief Justice (to the witness): The witness will look at the memo¬ 
randum, and testify as well as he can from his present recollection. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Go on, sir, from where you left 
off. 

The Witness: The next interruption occurred where the President re- 
markt that if his predecessor had lived-- 

Mr. Evarts: The question is of the interruption and its duration and 
form, not of its being when the President said this or that, or what he 
said. 

Mr, Manager Butler: I beg your pardon. I put the question, and it 
was expressly said there was no objection to it, "What did the President 
say to the crowd and what did the crowd say to the President?" That was 
not objected to, but it was said, "That is what we want." I put it in 
writing and the writing is on the desk, that I want what the crowd said 
to the President, and what the President said to the crowd. That was 
not objected to. (To the witness,) Go on, sir. 

The Witness: When this remark was made the crowd responded "Never, 
never," and gave three cheers for the Congress of the United States. 

The President went on: "I came here as I was passing along, and having 
been called upon for the purpose of exchanging views and ascertaining if 
we could"-- 

The Chief Justice: Mr. Manager, do we understand that the witness is 
to read the speech? 

Mr. Manager Butler: No, sir; he is not reading the speech; he is skip¬ 
ping whole paragraphs, whole pages of it almost; it is only where the in¬ 
terruptions come in. (To the witness.) Now just read the last words be¬ 
fore the interruptions come in, if you please, which will bring out all 
we want, and that will save all trouble. 

The Witness: When the President remarkt that he came here for the pur¬ 
pose of ascertaining, if he could, who was wrong and responsible, the 
crowd said, "You are," and there were long-continued cries. The Preei- 

39 






io6 


dent inquired later in his speech, who could place his finger upon any 
act of the President deviating from right, whereupon there were cheers 
and counter-cries of "New Orleans" long continued; and that cry was re¬ 
peated, frequently breaking the sentences of the President into clauses, 
and at the close of each sentence it was of some length. At the same 
time there were cries, "Why don't you hang Jeff. Davis?" The President 
responded, "Hang Jeff. Davis!" Then there were shouts and cries of 
"Down with him," and there were other cries of "Hang Wendell Phillips." 
The President askt, "Why don't you hang him?" There were answers given, 
"Give us an opportunity." The President went on to ask: "Haven't you 
got the court? Haven't you got the Attorney-general? Who is your Chief 
Justice who has refused to sit on his trial?" He was then interrupted 
by "groans and cheers." He went on to speak of calling upon Congress, 
"that is trying to break up the government"-- 

Mr. Stanbery: Stop. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Well, sir, state what took place 
then. 

The Witness: When he said, "I called upon your Congress, that is try¬ 
ing to break up the government," there were cries of "A lie!" from the 
crowd, hisses, and voices cried "Don't get mad;" and the President re¬ 
sponded, "I am not mad." There were then hisses. After a sentence or 
two there were three more cheers given for Congress. Then, after an¬ 
other sentence, voices cried, "How about Moses?" 

Q. What next? A. The next interruption I find noted here-- 

Mr. Evarts: That is not what you are to testify to; not what you find 
there, but what you remember. 

Mr. Manager Butler: The question is whether, after seeing it, you can 
remember it to tell it to us. A. The next interruption, I remember, 
was a cry of "Yes," when the President inquired, "Will you hear me?" 

These cries were taken up and were repeated, sometimes for several min¬ 
utes. There was all this time great confusion; cheers by the friends of 
the President, and counter-crie3 by those opposed to him. The President 
repeated his question, asking if the people would hear him for his cause, 
and for the Constitution of his country, and there were again cries, 

"Yes, yes," "Go on." He proceeded in the next sentence to inquire wheth¬ 
er, in any circumstances, he ever violated the Constitution of the coun¬ 
try, to which there were cries in response of "Never, never," and coun¬ 
ter-cries. The interruptions continued. When Mr. Seward's name was men¬ 
tioned, there was a voice, "God bless him," and cheers for Mr. Seward. 

He said that he would bring Mr. Seward before the people, show them his 
gaping wounds and bloody garments, and ask who was the traitor. There 
were cries of "Thad. Stevens," when the President askt, "Why don't you 
hang Thad. Stevens and Wendell Phillips?" and there were cheers and 
hisses. The President proceeded to say that, having fought traitors at 
the south, he would fight them at the north, when there were cheers and 
hisses; and there were also cries, when the President said that he would 
do this with the help of the people, "We won't give it." The interrup¬ 
tions continued in the shape of cheers and hisses and cries of the same 
sort thruout the speech. 


40 




Q. Were those cries and cheers and hisses continued so a3 to make the 
interruption go on for some time? A. Frequently for several minutes. 

Q. In what time would you be enabled to get up with him and get your 
report out? A. I was able to make, during most of these, a verbatim re¬ 
port of what the President said. 

RE-CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. By Mr. Evarts. You made a memorandum at the time of these inter¬ 
ruptions? A. I did. 

Q. Of these cries and hisses? A. I did. 

Q. And while you were doing that, you could catch up with reporting 
the President's speech, could you? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now, sir, have you not in every statement that you have made of 
these interruptions read from that newspaper before you? A. I have 
read from the newspaper some. I think that every one was in the newspa¬ 
per , 

Q. Are you not quite sure of it? A. I will not be positive. 

Q. Not positive but that you remember some that are not in the newspa¬ 
per? A. Possibly. 

Q. Have you forgotten any that were in the newspaper? A. No, I 
have not given all that occurred in the newspaper. 

Q. Without that newspaper, do you recollect any of those interrup¬ 
tions? A. I do. 

Q. All of them? A. I should not be able to give all of them without 
the aid of the memorandum. 

Q. Did you not make a full report of these interruptions on your 
notes? A. I did. 

Q. Of all that the crowd said? A. Not of all that they said. 

Q. Why not of all that they said? A. Of all that I was able to 
catch. 

Q. All that you could put down? A. Yes. 

Q. You got all that you could put down, and you left out some of what 
they said because you had not time to put it down; and yet you were 
catching up with the President? A. I gave my first attention to report¬ 
ing the President. Whatever time I had for putting down cries besides 
that I did so. 

Q. By Mr. Senator Grimes. I desire the witness to specify the partic¬ 
ular part of the report, as publisht, which was supplied by the report¬ 
er Johnson? A. It is impossible for me to do that at this time. 

Mr. Manager Butler: If the senator will allow me, I will ask the wit¬ 
ness whether any special part of the report itself was supplied by John¬ 
son or whether it was only corrected by Jphnson's notes? 

The Witness: The report was made out from my notes, corrected by Mr. 
Johnson's notes. I cannot say whether there were entire sentences from 
Mr. Johnson's notes or not. 

Q. By Mr. Manager Butler. I will ask you whether there can be such 
practise in reporting as to enable a person by longhand to make out a 
substantially accurate report? 

Mr. Evarts: To that we object. You can ask whether this witness by 
his practise can do it, not whether other people can do it, 

41 






io8 


Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Have you had such practise? A. 

I have had considerable practise in reporting in this way, and can make 
out a substantially accurate report. 

(The witness, at the request of the honorable manager, put his ini¬ 
tials on the newspaper to which he had referred, the Cleveland Leader of 
September 4, 1866.) 

DANIEL C. McEWEN, sworn and examined. 

Q. By Mr. Manager Butler. What is your profession? A. Shorthand 
writer, 

Q. How long has that been your profession? A. For about four or 
five years, I should judge. 

Q. Were you employed in September, 1866, in reporting for any paper? 

A. I was. 

Q. What paper? A. The New York World. 

Q. Did you accompany Mr. Johnson and the presidential party when they 
went to lay the corner-stone of a monument in honor of Mr. Douglas? A. 

I did. 

Q. Where did you join the party? A. I joined the party at West 
Point, New York. 

Q. How long did you continue with the party? A. I continued with 
them till they arrived at Cincinnati on their return. 

Q, Did you go professionally as a reporter? A. I did. 

Q. Had you accommodation on the train as such? A. I had. 

Q. The entree of the President's car. A. I had. 

Q. Were you at Cleveland? A. I was. 

Q. Did you make a report of his speech at Cleveland from the balcony? 
A. I did. 

Q. How, phonographical1y, or stenographically? A. Stenographically. 

Q. Have you your notes? A. I have, 

Q. Here? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Produce them. (The witness produced a memorandum-book.) Have you, 
at my request, copied out those notes since you have been here? A. I 
have. 

Q. (Exhibiting a manuscript to the witness.) Is that the copy of 
them? A. It appears to be. 

Q. Is that an accurate copy of your notes? A. It is. 

Q. How accurate a report of the speech are your notes? A. My notes 
are, I consider, very accurate so far as I took them. Some few sen¬ 
tences in the speech were interrupted by confusion in the crowd, which I 
have indicated in making the transcript, and the parts about which I am 
uncertain I inclose in brackets. 

Q. Where you have not inclosed in brackets, how is the transcript? A. 
Correct. 

Q. Was your report publisht? A. I cannot say. I took notes of the 
speech, but owing to the lateness of the hour--it was eleven o'clock or 
after--it was impossible for me to write out a report of the speech and 
send it to the paper which I represented. Therefore I went to the tele¬ 
graph office after the speech was given, and dictated some of my notes 

42 





109 


to other reporters and correspondents, and we made a report which we 
gave to the agent of the Associated Press, Mr. Gobright. 

Q. Did the agent of the Associated Press accompany the presidential 
party for a purpose? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Was it his business and duty to forward reports of speeches? A. 

I supposed it to be. 

Q. Did you so deal with him? A. I did. 

Q. Have you put down the cheers and interruptions of the crowd or any 
portion of them? A. I have put down a portion of them. It was impossi¬ 
ble to take them all. 

Q. State whether there was a good deal of confusion and noise there? 

A. There was a great deal of it. 

Q. Exhibition of ill-feeling and temper? A. I thought there was. 

Q. On the part of the crowd? A. On the part of the crowd. 

Q. How on the part of the President? A. He seemed a little excited. 

Q. Do you remember anything said there to him by the crowd about keep¬ 
ing his dignity? A. I have not it in my notes. 

Q. Do you remember it? A. I do not remember it from hearing. 

Q. Was anything said about not getting mad? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Did the crowd caution him not to get mad? A. The words used were, 
"Don't get mad, Andy." 

Q, Was he then speaking in considerable excitement, or otherwise? 

Did he appear considerably excited at that moment when they told him not 
to get mad? 

Mr. Evarts: That is not any part of the present inquiry, which is to 

verify these notes, to see whether they shall be in evidence or not. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I understand; but I want to get as much as I can 
from memory, and as much as I can from notes, and both together will 
make a perfect transcript of the scene. 

Mr. Evarts: But the present inquiry, I understand, is a verification 
of notes. Whenever that is abandoned and you go by memory let us know 
it. 

Mr. Manager Butler: The allegation is that it was a scandalous and 
disgraceful scene. The difference between us is that the counsel for 
the president claim the freedom of speech and we claim the decency of 

speech. We are now trying to show the indecency of the occasion. That 

is the point between us, and the surroundings are as much part of the oc¬ 
casion as what was said, 

Mr. Evarts: I understand you regard the freedom of speech in this 
country to be limited to the right of speaking properly and discreetly. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Oh, no. I regard freedom of speech in this coun¬ 
try the freedom to say anything by a private citizen in a decent manner. 

Mr. Evarts: That is the same thing. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Oh, no. 

Mr. Evarts: And who is the judge of the decency? 

Mr. Manager Butler: The court before whom the man is tried for break¬ 
ing the laws of decency. 

Mr. Evarts: Did you ever hear of a man being tried for freedom of 
speech in this country? 

Mr. Manager Butler: No; but I have seen two or three women tried; I 

43 







no 


never heard of a man being tried for it before. (Laughter.) (To the 
witness.) I was asking you whether there was considerable excitement in 
the manner of the President at the time he was cautioned by the crowd 
not to get mad? A. I was not standing where I could see the President. 

I did not notice his manner; I only heard his tone of voice, 

Q. Judging from what you saw and heard? A. I did not 6ee the Presi¬ 
dent , 

Q. What you heard? A. He seemed excited. I do not know what his 
manner is from personal acquaintance when he is angry. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the counsel for the respondent): The witness 
is yours, gentlemen. 

Mr. Evarts: Do you propose to offer this report of the speech? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I do. 

Mr. Evarts: Very well; then I will cross-examine the witness. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

Q. By Mr. Evarts. Did you report the whole of the President's speech? 
A. No, sir. The hour was late and I left shortly before the close; I 
do not know how long before he closed his speech. 

Q. So your report does not profess to be of the whole of the speech? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. From the time that he commenced till the point at which you left 
off did you report the whole of his speech? A. No, sir. Certain sen¬ 
tences were broken off by the interruption of the crowd, as I before 
stated. 

Q, But aside from the interruption, did you continue thru the whole 
tenor of the speech till the point at which you left? A. I did. 

Q. Did you make a report of it word for word as you supposed? A. 

Yes, sir; as I understood the speech. 

Q. And did you attempt to include, word for word, the interruptions 
of the assemblage? A. I did. I took what appeared to be the principal 
exclamations of the crowd; I could not hear all of them. 

Q. When did you make the copy or transcript that you produce here? A. 
I made that about two weeks since, after I was summoned before the mana¬ 
gers of the impeachment, and gave evidence concerning the speech there. 

Q. Can you be as accurate or as confident # in a transcript made after 
a lapse of two years as if it had been made presently, when the speech 
was fresh? A. I generally find that when a speech is fresh in my mind 
I read the notes with more readiness than when they become old; but as 
to the accuracy of the report, I think I can make as accurate a tran- 
sqript of the notes now as at that time. 

Q. When you transcribe after the lapse of time you have nothing to 
help you except the figures that are before you in your notes? A. That 
is all, with me. 

Q. Are you not aware that in phonographic reporting there is frequent 
obscurity in the haste and brevity of the notation? A. There sometimes 
is. 

Q. By Mr. Manager Butler. I observe that the counsel on the other 
side askt for the politics of the Leader. May I ask you for the poli¬ 
tics of the World? A. I have understood them to be Democratic. 

44 





EVERETT D. STARK, sworn and examined. 

ft. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) What is your profession? A. I practise 
law now. 

ft What was your profession in September, 1866. A, I practist law 
then. 

ft. Where? A. In Cleveland. I may say I was formerly a shorthand re 
porter, and do more or less of it now in law business. 

ft, Did you report the speech of Andrew Johnson, President of the Unit 
ed States, from the balcony of the Cleveland Hotel on the night of the 
3d of September, 1866. A. Yes, sir. 

ft. For what paper? A. For the Cleveland Herald. 

ft. Did you take it in shorthand? A. I did, 

ft. Was it written out by you and publisht? A. It was. 

ft. Was it publisht as written out by you? A. Yes, sir. 

ft. Have you your shorthand notes? A. I have not. 

ft. Are they in existence? A. I suppose not. I paid no attention to 

them. I suppose they were thrown in the chip-basket. 

ft. Did you ever compare the printed speech in the Herald with your 
notes for any purpose, or with the manuscript? A. I did with the manu¬ 
script that night. That is, I compared the slips of proofs that were 
furnisht with the copy as I took it from the original notes, 
ft. How did it compare? A. It was the same. 

ft. Were the slips of proofs the same as the paper publisht the next 

day? A. Just the same, with such typographical corrections as were 

made there. 

ft. Have yot a copy of the paper? A. I have. 

ft. Will you produce it? (The witness produced a copy of the Cleve¬ 
land Herald of September 4, 1866.) Can you now state whether this is a 
substantially accurate report in this paper of what Andrew Johnson said 
the night before? A. Yes, sir; it is generally. There are some por¬ 
tions there that were cut down, and I can point out just where those 
places are. 

ft. By being "cut down" do you mean the substance given instead of tho 
words? A. Yes, sir. 

ft. Does it appear in the report which are substantial and which are 
the verbatim parts? A. Not to any other person than myself, as I can 
tell from my recollection. 

ft. Can you point out that which is substantial and that which is accu 
rate in the report? 

The Witness: Do you wish me to go over the whole speech for that pur¬ 
pose? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I will, for the present, confine myself to such 
portions as are in the articles. If my learned friends want you to go 
over the rest they will ask you. 

The Witness: Commencing a little before where the specification in 
the articles of impeachment begins, I can read just what Mr. Johnson 
said at that point. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Do so. 

The Witness: (Reading) "Where is the man living, or the woman, in 
the community, that I have wronged, or where is the person that can 

45 







112 


place their finger upon one single hairbreadth of deviation from one 
single pledge I have made, or one single violation of the Constitution 
of the country? What tongue does he speak? What religion does he pro¬ 
fess? Let him come forward and place his finger upon one pledge I have 
violated?" There was some interruption by the crowd, and various re¬ 
marks were made, of which I have noted one, because only one did Mr. 
Johnson pay any attention to, and that was a voice that cried "Hang Jeff. 
Davis." The President said, "Hang Jeff. Davis? Hang Jeff. Davis? Why 
don't you?" There was then some applause and interruption, and he re¬ 
peated "Why don't you?" and there was again applause and interruption; 
and the President went on, "Have not you got the court? Have not you 
got the court?" repeating it twice. "Have not you got the Attorney-gen¬ 
eral? Who is your Chief Justice--and that refused to sit upon the 
trial?" There was then interruption and applause, and he went on to say: 
"I am not the prosecuting attorney; I am not the jury; but I will tell 
you what I did do: I called upon your Congress that is trying to break 
up the government"--. At that point there was interruption and confu¬ 
sion, and there may have been words there uttered by the President that 
I did not hear, but I think not. "Yes, did your Congress order hanging 
Jeff. Davis?" and then there was confusion and applause. And then the 
President went on to say, "But let prejudices pass," and so on. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Will you now come toward the conclusion 
of the other point mentioned in the specifications, and state whether 
you reported that accurately? A. Commencing a little before where the 
specification is of the speech, he said: "In bidding you farewell here 
to-night, I would ask you, with all the pains Congress has taken to ca¬ 
lumniate and malign me, what has Congress done? Has it done anything to 
restore the Union of the States? But, on the contrary, has it not done 
everything to prevent it? And because I stand now as I did when the re^ 
bellion commenced I have been denounced as a traitor. My countrymen, 
here to-night, who has suffered more than I? Who has run greater risk? 
Who has borne more than I? But Congress, factious, domineering, tyran¬ 
nical Congress, has undertaken to poison the minds of the American peo¬ 
ple and create a feeling against me*'--so far Mr. Johnson's words, and I 
concluded the sentence here in this fashion--"in consequence of the man 
ner in which I have distributed the public patronage." These were not 
Mr. Johnson's words, but contained in a summary way the reasons that he 
gave just at that point for his action. 
t Mr. Evarts (to the managers): Do you propose to offer this report of 
the Cleveland speech also? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I propose to read one and offer all, so that the 
President may have the privilege of collating them in order to have no 
injustice done him as to what he said. 

Mr. Evarts: We do not claim any privileges of that kind; on the con¬ 
trary we propose to object to all of them that they are not properly 
proved. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Certainly. I observed that the President object¬ 
ed in his answer that we did not put in all he said, and I mean to do 
the best I can in that regard now. 


46 



Mr. Evarts: That is exactly what we desire, if anything is to come in 
Now, I will proceed with the witness. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

ft. (By Mr. Evarts.) You have a newspaper report here? A. I have, 
ft. And that is all you have? A. That is all the memorandum I have. 

Q. The only memorandum is the newspaper report? A. The newspaper re 

port. 

ft. What is the date of the newspaper? A. September 4, 1866. 
ft. Did you make a stenographic report of the whole of the President's 
speech? A. I did with one exception. 

ft. What exception is that? A. It was a part of what he said about 
the Freedmen's Bureau. Somewhere about the commencement of, I should 
say, the latter half of his speech, by time, he went somewhat into de¬ 
tails and figures which I omitted to take down. 

ft. Did you write out your notes in full? A. No, sir. 

ft. You never did that? A. I never did that. 

ft. And you have not now either the notes or any transcript of them? 

A. Only this. 

ft. You have got a newspaper; I understand that. Now, did you prepare 
for the newspaper the report that is there contained? A. I did. 

ft. And you prepared it on the plan of some part verbatim and some 
part condenst? A. Yes, sir. 

ft. What was your rule of condensation and the motive of it? A. I 
had no definite rule that I can give. The reason why I left out a part 
of what he said of the Freedmen's Bureau was-- 

ft. That was not condenst at all, was it? A. That part was not taken 
That I did take was somewhat condenst. 

ft. I am only asking about what you did take, not what you did not 
take. What was your rule in respect to what you put verbatim into your 
report and what you condenst? How did you determine which parts you 
would treat in one way or the other? A. Well, sir, perhaps I was influ 
enced somewhat by what I considered would be a little more spicy or en¬ 
tertaining to the reader. 

ft. In which interest, that of the President or his opponents? A. 
Well, I do not know that. 

ft. Which side were you on? A. I was opposed to the President, 
ft. But you do not know which you thought the interest was you select¬ 
ed the spicy part for? A. I was very careful of those parts that occa¬ 
sioned considerable excitement or interest in the crowd, in his hearers, 
to take them down carefully, as he said them. 

ft. The parts that the crowd were most interested in you thought you 
would take down carefully? A. With more particularity. 

ft. And the parts that they were interested in, as you observed, were 
those that they made the most outcry about? Was it not so? A. Yes, 
sir; partially so. 

ft. That was your judgment and guide? A. Considerably, 
ft. Now, in regard to the condenst part of your report, are you able 
to say that there is a single expression in that portion of your report 

47 




which was used by the President, so that the words as they came from his 
mouth were there set down? A. No, sir; I think it is not the case in 
those particular points that I condenst. I did so by the use, in some 
part, of my own words. 

Q. And for compression of space, did you not? A. Yes, sir; primari¬ 
ly. 

Q. Was not your rule for condensation partly when you had got tired 
of writing out? A. No, sir. 

Q. Not at all? A. One reason was it was getting on between three or 
four o'clock, and I was directed to cut down toward the last, and I did 
so more toward the last than I did in the earlier parts of the speech. 

Q. In order to be ready for the press? A. In order to be ready for 
the morning press. 

Mr. Evarts: We object to this report as a report of the President's 
speech. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness); Mark it with your initials and 
leave it on the table. (The witness markt with his initials "E. D. S." 
the copy of the Cleveland Herald referred to by him.) I forgot to ask 
you what are the politics of the Herald? 

The Witness: It was at that time what we called "Johnson Republican." 
Some called it "Post Office Republican." The editor of the Herald had 
the post office at that time. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I propose now, sir, to offer as the foundation, 
as the one upon which I rely, the Leader's report, as sworn to by Mr. 
Hudson, the first witness as to this speech. 

Mr. Evarts: That we object to; and the grounds of objection, made man¬ 
ifest doubtless to the observation of the Chief Justice and the Senators, 
are greatly enhanced when I find that the managers are in possession of 
the original minutes of a shorthand reporter of the whole speech, and 
his transcript made therefrom and sworn to by him. We submit that to 
substitute for this evidence of the whole speech, upon this mode of au¬ 
thentication, the statement of Mr. Hudson, upon the plan and theory as 
testified to by him, is contrary to the first principles of justice in 
evidence. He has not said how much is his and how much is the reporter 
Johnson's, and it is in considerable part condenst, a statement of 
"drift," determined by circumstances, not of the President's utterance. 
Th6 same objection will be made if this second or Cleveland Herald re¬ 
port is presented. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I do not propose to argue the question. Suppose 
we were trying any other case for substantive words; would not this be a 
sufficient proof? I do not propose to withdraw the other report of Mr. 
McEwen. I propose to put it in, subject to comment, to be read if these 
gentlemen desire it read, and the other report, so that we may have all 
three reports; the Post office report, the Republican report, and the 
Democratic report. A natural leaning makes me lean to this particular 
report as the one which I mean shall be the standard report, because it 
is sworn to expressly by the party as having been written down by him¬ 
self, publisht by himself, and corrected by himself, and I am only sur¬ 
prised that there should be objection to it. 

Mr. Evarts: Nothing can better manifest, Mr. Chief Justice, the sound- 

43 






ness of our objection than the statement of the manager. He selects d y 
preference a report made by and thru the agency of political hostility, 
and on the plan of condensation, and on the method of condensing another 
man'8 notes, the amount and quality relatively not being discerned, in¬ 
stead of a sworn report by a phonographer who took every word and brings 
his original notes transcribed, and brings his transcription, and swears 
to their accuracy; and here deliberately, in the face of this testimony 
as to what was said, thus authentically taken and authentically pre¬ 
served and brought into court to be verified, the honorable manager pro¬ 
poses to present, as of the speech in its production, the notes framed 
and publisht in the motive, and with the feeling, and under the influ¬ 
ence and in the method, that has been stated. We object to it as evi¬ 
dence of the words spoken. 

Mr. Manager Butler: If, Mr. President and Senators, I had not lived 
too long in this world to be astonisht at anything, I should have been 
surprised at the tone in which this proposition is argued. Do I keep 
back from these gentlemen anybody's report? Do I not give them all re- 
ports--everything I can lay my hand on? Am I obliged to go into the en¬ 
emy's camp? Shall I not use the report of my friends and not of my ene¬ 
mies, and then give them an opportunity of having the reports of my ene¬ 
mies to correct that of my friends? Is all virtue, all propriety in the 
Democratic report? Can that never be wrong? At one time I think Presi¬ 
dent Johnson, if I remember, would not like to have me put in the 
World's report of him; and when they changed exactly I do not know. I 
have offered this report--why? Because this is the fullest complete re¬ 
port. The reason why I did not rely upon Mr. McEwen's report is that he 
testified on the stand that he got tired and went away and did not re¬ 
port the whole speech; but this is a report of the whole speech, and the 
only report which purports to be a report of the whole speech. Mr. 
Stark's report, as he says,left out a portion. Mr. McEwen expressly 
swears he left out a portion. Hence I cannot put them in, or if I offer 
ed to do so I should be met with the objection, "You do not put in the 
whole speech." I do choose the report which the witness swears is a com 
plete report of the speech except so far as he synopsized; and then, so 
far as the other two reports go, I bring them in here to correct it, so 
that the President shall take no detriment. Oh, how he stickles now for 
exactness! The President was willing that Mr. Moore should make a 
speech for him on the 18th of August, and that went out. Now, then, 
here are three reports, representing the three unfortunate divisions of 
opinion on this question; and we offer them all to the counsel. We say 
which we prefer, and then he almost berates us, as much as his courtesy 
will allow him to do, because we choose our friends, and I am glad to 
say not his. The question is not of competency but of weight of evi¬ 
dence, and has simply been argued so. (Mr. Evarts rose.) I ask that 
there may be a decision. I think I have the close some time, sir. 

Mr. Evarts: Not on our objection. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I beg your pardon; it is on my offer. 

Mr. Evarts: Our objection. 

Mr. Manager Butler: No; my offer. 

The Chief Justice: Do the counsel desire to be heard further? 

49 





n6 


Mr. Manager Butler: Does not the presiding officer think we have the 
close? 

The Chief Justice: The counsel for the respondent have not exhausted 
their hour. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Have we got to keep on, in order to get the close, 
until we occupy our whole hour? 

The Chief Justice: The rule of the Senate is that each side shall 
have an hour. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Be it so. I can even get on with that rule. 

Mr. Evarts: Discredit is now thrown upon the most authentic report, 
first by an observation that it omits a part of the speech, and secondly 
by a suggestion that it has but Democratic responsibility. There you 
have it fairly and squarely, that it is not on the accuracy of Phonogra¬ 
phy nor on the honesty of transcripton, but on the color of the mind 
thru which the President's speech is to be run, and by double condensa¬ 
tion reproduced to the tone and the temper of a party print. There is 
precisely that condensation in the first orignal notes of Mr. Hudson, 
and condensation then from those notes into the space that the newspaper 
takes, and is offered confessedly on the principle of selection which 
the learned managers have adopted of preferring what they consider a 
friendly report. Mr. Chief Justice and senators, I have read neither 
of them. I did not know before that the question of whether the authen¬ 
ticity of stenography was reliable depended upon the political opinions 
of the stenographer. We submit that there is no proper evidence; there 
is no living witness that by memory can produce the President's speech, 
and there is no such authentication of notes in any case but Mr, Mc- 
Ewen's that makes the publisht speeches evidence. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I shall not debate the matter further. I rise 
simply to say that I have made no such proposition. 1 think this is an 
accurate report so far as we have put it into the articles. It is an ac¬ 
curate report, a sworn accurate report, and by a man whom we can trust 
and do trust. The others, we think, are just as accurate perhaps; that 
we do not go into; we simply put them forward, so that if there is any 
change the President may have the benefit of it. He comes in here in 
his answer and says that we will not give him the full benefit of all he 
said; and then, when we take great pains here to bring everybody that 
made a report that we can hear of in this case and we offer them all, he 
says we must take a given one. To that we answer we take the one that 
has the whole speech. And now I will test the question: If the gentle¬ 
men will agree not to object to McEwen's report because it is not a re¬ 
port of the whole speech, I will take that. 

Mr, Evarts: We will not make that objection. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Very good; put it in then. 

The Chief Justice: The honorable manager then withdraws his proposi¬ 
tion to read the Cleveland Leader? 

Mr. Manager Butler: No, sir; I am going to read this and put in both 
the others as evidence, with your leave. I will take this as the stan¬ 
dard copy. 

Mr. Howard: Mr. President, if the managers have no objection to it, I 

50 



desire to move that the trial be postponed until to-morrow at the usual 
hour, for the purpose of enabling the Senate to transact some business. 

Mr. Conkling and others: Let us finish this matter. 

Mr. Howard: I withdraw my motion for the present. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Mr. Clerk, will you have the kindness to read 
this? (Handing to the chief clerk the Cleveland Leader of September 4, 
1866.) 

Mr. Evarts: The honorable managers will correct us if we are in error 
in supposing that when I had made manifest our objections to the imper¬ 
fect reports, as matter of lawful right on our part to object, the man¬ 
agers said that if we would not object to McEwen's for incompleteness 
they would put that in as the report of the speech. Now, it seems, they 
propose to put the others in also. 

Mr. Manager Butler: We want to be fully understood, so that we shall 
have no mistake. We put this in as the standard. We put in the other 
two, so that if the President comes in here with witnesses to say it is 
not true, (because all things are possible), then we shall have the ad¬ 
ditional authentication of the other two reports. 

Mr. Evarts: The learned manager is familar enough with the course of 
trials to know that it will be time enough for him to bring forth these 
additional copies to contradict this movement of ours when we make it. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I never knew that was the way. Will you allow 
this to be read, or do you still make any objection? I claim that they 
shall all go in. 

Mr. Evarts: We object to the two copies from newspapers. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Very good. I ask that that question be decided 
then. We say they all go in. 

The Chief Justice (to the managers): You offer the Cleveland Leader 
first? 

Mr. Manager Butler: I offer the whole three at once. 

The Chief Justice: The Chief Justice will not put the question upon 
all three at once unless so directed by the Senate. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Under the direction of the presiding officer, I 
will offer first the Leader, and ask a vote on that. 

The Chief Justice: The managers offer a report made in the Leader 
newspaper of Cleveland as evidence in the cause. It appears from the 

statement of the witness, Hudson, that the report was not made by him 

wholly from his own notes, but from his own notes and the notes of an¬ 
other person whose notes are not produced, nor is that person himself 
produced for examination. Under these circumstances the Chief Justice 
thinks that that paper is inadmissible. Does any senator desire a vote 
of the Senate on the question? 

Mr. Drake: I ask for a vote on the question, sir. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I supposed this question was to be decided with¬ 

out debate. 

The Chief Justice: It is. Senators, you who are of opinion that the 
Leader newspaper is admissible in evidence-- 

Mr. Conness and Mr. Sumner called for the yeas and nays; and they were 
ordered. 


51 




118 


The Chief Justice: Senators, you who are of opinion that the Leader 
newspaper is admissible in evidence will, as your names are called, an¬ 
swer "yea;” those of the contrary opinion,"nay." 

The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted--yeas 35, nays 11, 
not voting, 8. 

The Chief Justice: On this question the yeas are 35, and the nays are 
11. So the report of the Leader is admitted in evidence. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I now offer also the report of Mr. McEwen. Is 
that objected to? 

Mr. Evarts: Our former objection. We make no additional objection. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Then I understand that is in evidence. I now of¬ 
fer the report of Mr. Stark in the Cleveland Herald. Is there any objec¬ 
tion to that? 

Mr. Evarts: The same, I suppose. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Now I will read the report in the Leader, as it 
is a short one. 

Mr. Howard: I understand that the honorable managers are about to 
read these speeches from the reports. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Unless the reading may be dispenst with and they 
be put to print. 

Mr. Johnson: Let them be considered as read. 

Mr. Stanberry: We do not want them read. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Very well, then, I do not want the reading. They 
will be taken as read, and printed. 

The reports thus put in evidence are as follows: 

(Here insert (a) the report from the Cleveland Leader,(b) D.C. Mc- 
Ewen's report, (c) the Cleveland Herald report.) 

Mr. Edmunds: I move that the Senate sitting for this trial stand ad¬ 
journed until tomorrow at twelve o'clock. 

Mr. Fessenden: I wish to make a motion that takes precedence of that, 
that when the court adjourns it adjourn to meet on Monday next. 

Mr. Drake: That has been decided against. 

Mr. Fessenden: It can be considered again, because other business has 
been done in the mean time. 

Mr. Edmunds: I rise to a point of order, that under the rules the mo¬ 
tion to adjourn takes precedence. 

The Chief Justice: The Chair is of opinion that the motion to adjourn 
takes precedence of every other motion if it is not withdrawn. 

Mr. Edmunds: I will withdraw it at the request of the Senator from 
Maine. 

Mr. Fessenden: I can afterward renew the motion to adjourn. 

The Chief Justice: The senator from Maine moves that when the Senate 
sitting as a court of impeachment adjourns, it adjourn to meet at twelve 
o'clock on Monday. 

Mr. Ferry called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered; and, be¬ 
ing taken, resulted--yeas 16, nays 29, not voting,9. 

So the motion was not agreed to. 

Mr. Edmunds: I move that the Senate sitting for this trial adjourn. 

The Chief Justice: The senator from Vermont moves that the Senate sit- 

52 



ting as a court of impeachment adjourn until to morrow at twelve 
o'clock , 

The motion was agreed to. 

Saturday, April 4, 1868. 

The Chief Justice of the United States entered the Senate chamber at 
twelve o'clock and took the chair. 

The usual proclamation having been made by the 6ergeant-at-arms, 

The managers of the impeachment on the part of the House of Represent¬ 
atives appeared and took the seats assigned them. 

The counsel for the respondent also appeared and took their seats. 

The presence of the House of Represenatives was next announced, and 
the members of the House, as in Committee of the Whole, headed by Mr. E, 
B. Washburne, the chairman of that committee, and accompanied by the 
Speaker and Clerk, entered the Senate chamber, and were conducted to the 
seats provided for them. 

The Chief Justice: The Secretary will read the minutes of the last 
day's proceedings. 

The Secretary read the journal of the proceedings of the Senate yester¬ 
day sitting for the trial of the impeachment. 

The Chief Justice: Gentlemen Managers, you will please to proceed 
with your evidence. The Senators will please to give their attention. 

L. L. WALBRIDGE sworn and examined. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) What is your business? A. Shorthand 
writer. 

Q. How long have you been engaged in that business? A. Nearly ten 
year8. 

Q. Have you had during that time any considerable experience; and if 
so, how much in that business? A. Yes, sir; I have had experience dur¬ 
ing the whole of that time in connection with newspaper reporting and 
outside. 

1. Reporting for courts? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. With what papers have you been lately connected? A. More recent¬ 
ly with the Missouri Democrat; previous to that time with the Missouri 
Republican. 

Q. Do the names of those papers indicate their party proclivities, or 
are they reverst? A. They are the reverse. 

Q. The Democrat means Republican, and the Republican means Democrat? 
A. Exactly. 

Q. To what paper were you attacht on or about the 8th of September, 
1866? A. The Missouri Democrat. 

Q. Did you report a speech delivered from the balcony of the Southern 
Hotel in St. Louis by Andrew Johnson? A. I did. 

Q. What time in the day was that speech delivered? A. Between eight 
and nine o'clock in the evening. 

Q. Was there a crowd in the streets? A. Yes, sir, there was, and on 
the balcony also. 

Q, Where were you? A, I was on the balcony, within two or three 
feet of the President while he was speaking. 

53 




120 


ft. Where were the rest of the presidential party? A. I cannot tell 
you. 

ft. Were they there? A. I have no recollection of seeing any of the 
party on the balcony. 

ft. Did the President come out to answer a call from the crowd in the 
street, apparently? A. Yes, sir, I judge so; I know there was a very 
large crowd in the street in front of the hotel, and there were contin¬ 
uous cries for the President, and in reponse to those cries I supposed 
he came forward. 

ft. Had he been received in the city by a procession of the various 
charitable societies? A. He had during the afternoon been received by 
the municipal authorities. 

ft. Had the mayor made him an address of welcome? A. He had. 
ft. Had he answered that address? A. He had. 
ft. Did you take a report of that speech? A. I did. 
ft. How fully? A. I took every word. 

ft. After it was taken, how soon was it written out? A. Immediately, 
ft. How was it written out? A. At my dictation. 

H ft. By whom? A. The first part of the speech previous to the banquet 

was written out in one of the rooms of the Southern Hotel. That occu¬ 
pied about half an hour, I think. We then attended the banquet, at 

which other speeches were made. Immediately after the conclusion of the 
banquet we went to the Republican office and there I dictated the speech 
to Mr. Monahan and Mr. McHenry, two attaches of the Republican. 

ft. You have spoken of a banquet; was there a banquet given to the 
President and his suite by the city? A. There was, at the Southern Ho¬ 
tel, immediately after the speech on the balcony. 

ft. At that banquet did the President speak. A. He made a very short 
address. 

Q. And there was other speaking there, I presume? A. Yes, sir. 
ft. After that speech was written out was it publisht? A. It was. 

ft. When? A. On the very next morning, in the Sunday Republican, 

ft. After it was publisht did you revise the publication by your notes? 
A. I did. 

ft. How soon? A. Immediately after the speech was printed in the Sun¬ 
day morning Republican I went to the Democrat office in company with my 
associate, Mr. Edmund T. Allen, and we very carefully revised the speech 
for the Monday morning Democrat. 

ft. Then it was on the same Sunday that you made the revision? A. 

Yes, sir; the Sunday after the speech. 

ft. When you made the revision had you your notes? A. I had. 

ft. State whether you compared the speech as printed with those notes? 

A. Yes, sir; I did at that time, and since. 

ft. When you compared it, did you make any corrections that were need¬ 
ed, if any were needed? A. My recollection is that there were one or 
two simple corrections--errors either in transcribing or on the part of 
the printer. That is all that I remember in the way of corrections of 
the speech. 

ft. Did you afterward have occasion to revise that speech with your 
notes? A. I had. 


54 




121 


Q. When was that? A. I think that was little over a year ago. 

Q. What occasion called you to revise it with your notes a little 
over a year ago? A. I was summoned here by the Committee on the New 
Orleans Riots, and immediately after receiving the summons I hunted up 
my notes and again made a comparison with them of the printed speech. 

Q. How far did that second comparison assure you of corrections? A. 

It was perfectly correct. 

Q. Now, in regard to particularity of reporting; were you enabled to 
report so correctly as to give inaccuracies of pronunciation even? A. 
Yes, sir. I did so in that instance. 

Q. Where are your original notes now? A. I cannot tell you, sir. I 
searcht for them immediately after I was summoned here, but failed to 
find them. 

Q. You had them up to the time you were examined before the Committee 
on the New Orleans Riot? A. I had, and brought them with me here, but 
I have no recollection of them since that time. 

Q. Have you a copy of that paper? A. I have, 

ft. Will you produce it? 

(The witness produced a newspaper, being the Missouri Democrat of Mon¬ 
day, September 10, 1866.) 

Q, (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Is this it? A. It is, 

Q. From your knowledge of the manner in which you took the speech, 
and from your knowledge of the manner in which you corrected it, state 
whether you are now enabled to say that this paper which I hold in my 
hand contains an accurate report of the speech of the President deli¬ 
vered on that occasion? A. Yes, sir; I am enabled to say it is an accu¬ 
rate report. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I propose, if there is no objection, to offer 
this in evidence, and also if there is objection. 

Mr. Evarts: Before that is done let us cross-examine this witness. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Certainly. 

CROSS-EXAMINATION. 

ft. (By Mr. Evarts,) I understand that you took down, as from the 
President's mouth, the entire speech, word for word as he delivered it? 

A. Yes, sir, 

Q. In the transcript from your notes and in this publication did you 
preserve that form and degree of accuracy and completeness? Is it all 
the speech? A. It is the whole speech. 

ft. No part of it is condenst or paraphrased? A. No, sir; the whole 
speech is there in complete form. 

Q, You say that, besides the revision of the speech whioh you made on 
the Sunday following its delivery, you made a revision a year ago? A. 
Yes, sir. 

ft. For what reason and upon what occasion? A. As I said, it was 
owing to my having been summoned before the Committee on the New Orleans 
Riot. 

ft. A committee of Congress? A. Yes, sir. 

Q. At Washington? A, Yes, sir. 


55 





122 


Q. When was that? A. I should say a little over a year ago. I can¬ 
not fix the date precisely. 

Q. Were you then inquired of in regard to that speech? A. I was. 

Q. And did you produce it then to that committee? A. I did. 

Q. Were you examined before any other committee than that? A. No, 
sir. 

Q. Was your testimony reduced to writing? A. I believe so. 

Q. And signed by you? A. No, sir; not signed. 

Mr. Evarts: We suppose, if the court please, that this report is with¬ 
in the competency of proof. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the witness): Was your testimony publisht? 

The Witness: The testimony I gave last winter? 

Mr. Manager Butler: Yes, sir; before the New Orleans riot committee. 

The Witness: I am not aware whether it was or not. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Will the Secretary have the kindness to read this 
speech? 

The Chief Clerk read, as follows, from the Missouri Democrat of Monday, 
September 10, 1866: 


(Insert speech.) 

JOSEPH A. DEAR sworn and examined. 

Q. (By Mr, Manager Butler.) What is your business? A. Journalist. 

Q. How long has that been your business? A. Five years. 

Q, Can you report speeches made? A. I am a shorthand writer as well. 

Q. Did you join the presidential party when it went to St. Louis, via 
Cleveland? A. I did, at Chicago, on the 6th of September, 1866, I be- 
1ieve. 

Q. Wore you with the presidential party at St. Louis? A. I was. 

Q. Did you take a report of any of the speeches made there? A. I re¬ 
ported all the speeches made there. 

Q. For what paper were you reporting? A. I was with the party as 
the correspondent of the Chicago Republican. I made the reports for the 
St. Louis Times. 

Q. Have you your notes of that report? A. I have part of them. 

Qo Was there speaking on the steamboat? A. There was. 

Q. Did you report that speech? A. I did; part of it. Yes, I re¬ 
ported that speech on the steamboat. 

Q. Was that in answer to an address of welcome by the mayor? A, I 
think that was a speech in answer to an address of welcome by Captain 
Eads. 

Q. Who was he? Whom did he represent? A. I believe he represented 
a committee of citizens which met the party at Alton. 

Q. How did you make this report? A. By shorthand writing. 

Q. How soon did you write it out? A. That evening. 

Q. How accurate is it where it purports to be accurate? A. It is a 
report made for the St. Louis Times; and, as a matter of course, report¬ 
ing for a paper of strong Democratic politics, I corrected inaccuracies 
of grammar. That is all. 


56 



123 


Q. Have you since written that out from your notes, so far as you 
have the notes? A. I have. 

Q. (Handing a manuscript to the witness.) Look there and see if that 
is your writing-out from your notes? A. (Examining the manuscript.) 
This is. 

Q. An exact transcript? A. An exact transcript. 

Q. So far as it goes, is it an accurate report of the speech as de¬ 
livered by Andrew Johnson? A. With the exception I have mentioned. 

Q. With the exception of inaccuracies of grammar-- 

Mr. Stanberry: Is that the speech at the steamboat or the hotel? 

Mr. Manager Butler: At the Southern Hotel, on the balcony. They are 
both here; but I am now asking for the one at the balcony. 

The Witness: The first is the speech at the Lindell Hotel. 

Q. The other, the one we are inquiring about, was at the Southern Ho¬ 
tel . 

A. At the Southern Hotel. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I mistook. I saw the memorandum "steamboat” 
there. (To the Witness.) Now take the speech at the Southern Hotel. 

So far as your report goes, as I understand, it is an accurate report of 
the speech? A. It is. 

Q. Why is it not all there? A. I have lost part of my notes. 

Q. Whereabouts does it commence? A. The speech in my notes com¬ 
mences abruptly in the middle of a sentence,--"who have got the shackles 
upon their limbs, and which are as much under control and will of the 
master as the colored men who were emancipated." 

Mr. Howard: Where was this speech made? 

Mr. Manager Butler: At the Southern Hotel, St, Louis. It is the same 
speech that has been read. (To the witness.) Will you read, sir, where 
ycur report begins? A. (Reading.) --"who have got the shackles upon 
their limbs, and which are as much under control and will of the master 
as the colored men who were emancipated. (Hisses and cheers,) And I 
call upon you as freemen to advocate the freedom"-- 

Q. That will do for the present. Does the speech then go thru? A. 

It goes thru to the end. 

Mr. Manager Butler (to the counsel for the respondent): Gentlemen, 
you will see that this report begins at about the top of the first full 
column of the previous report after the speech commences. (To the wit¬ 
ness.) Have you ever compared that with this paper? A. I do not know 
what "this paper" is. 

Q. This paper is the St. Louis Democrat. A. No, sir; I never have. 

Mr, Manager Butler: We offer this paper now in evidence; I do not 
care to read it. The variations are not remarkable. 

Mr. Stanbery: We will first cross-examine the witness. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Certainly. 

CROSS EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Stanbery.) Was this copy of yours ever publisht anywhere? 
A, Yes. 


57 




124 


Q. In what paper? A. In the St. Louis Times. 

Q. What date? A. The Sunday following; I think the 9th. 

Q. State how much time it requires a shorthand writer to write out 
his notes in what is called longhand, compared with that which is re¬ 
quired in taking down the notation. A. We generally reckon the differ¬ 
ence between the rates of speed in writing longhand and shorthand as 
about one-sixth or one-seventh. 

q That is, it takes six or seven times as long to write out the 
speech as it does to take the notes? A. No, sir. 

Q How then? A. There are frequently interruptions in the course of 
a speech, there are frequent pauses of a speaker, and a great many 
things. 

Q. But suppose there are no pauses, but you are merely taking down 
the speech? A. If a man talks steadily for two or three minutes to¬ 
gether, it will take from twelve to twenty minutes to write out what he 
may say in three minutes' time, ordinarily. 

Q. That is, four times as long? A. Yes. 

Q. Suppose he speaks rapidly and excitedly? A, If he is a very flu¬ 
ent speaker it may take longer. 

Q. Of course there is a difference between speakers as to that? A. 

A very great deal of difference. 

Q. In a rapid speaker what is the proportion of time? A. My last an¬ 
swer covers it. I cannot say more precisely than that. 

Q. Does the standard you give of four times as long apply to those 
who speak deliberately? A. Yes, I think that would. A man could eas¬ 
ily write out the remarks of a deliberate speaker in four times the 
length of time. 

Q. What, then, is the proportion of time in the case of a rapid speak¬ 
er? A. Some men speak about as high as two hundred and thirty words a 
minute. A longhand writer can write out about twenty-eight or thirty 
words a minute steadily, if he is a rapid penman and has no difficulty 
in reading his notes. 

Q. Then it ought to be from eight to ten times as long for a rapid 
speaker? A. About seven times as long. 

Q. Twenty-eight to two hundred? A. That is about seven times. 

Q. Then the longhand writer who is reporting will get, in case of a 
rapid speaker, one word in seven? A If he attempts to write out in 
full. 

RE-EXAMINATION. 

Q. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) Do I understand you that the whole of 
your report of the speech was publisht in the Times from all your notes? 
A. Not the whole of it, 

Q. Was it condenst for that publication? A. It was considerably con- 
denst. 

Q. Was Andrew Johnson a. rapid speaker in the manner that he spoke? A. 
Mr. Johnson is a very fluent speaker and a very incoherent one. 

Q. Repeating frequently his words? A. Very frequently; very tauto¬ 
logical, very verbose. 


58 




125 


ft. Does that enable him to be taken with more ease? A. It enables 
him to be taken with more ease, 

ft. Is it not within your experience that there are men who by prac¬ 
tise in longhand by abbreviations can follow very accurately or quite ac 
curately a speaker who spoke as Andrew Johnson spoke? A. I think they 
could give the sense of his speech without doing him any injustice 

ft. How was it, taking into consideration the interruptions, supposing 
such a writer had been taking him from the balcony? A. He would have 
to indicate the interruptions; he could not write them out. 

ft. But could he get the sense of what the speaker was saying? A. Of 
the speaker or the interruptions? 

ft. Of the speaker. A. Yes he could. 

ft. (By Mr. Stanbery.) A longhand writer may take the sense and sub- 
tance of a speech; that is, he may take the sense and substance as to 
his ideas of what are the sense and substance? A. Undoubtedly; he must 
rely on his own view of what was intended to be said. 

ft. (By Mr. Manager Butler.) By dictating a report from the notes, 
with another person to write out, it can be much more rapidly written 
out, can it not? A. Yes, sir; at least one-fourth. 

Mr. Manager Butler: I put this report in evidence. I do not propose 
to read it. 

Mr. Stanbery: Let it be printed. 

Mr. Manager Butler: Certainly. 

The report made by the witness, Joseph A. Dear, is as follows: 

(Insert speech here.) 


59 


























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The Phonographic Amanuensis. A Presentation of Pitman 
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The Phonographic Dictionary and Phrase Book. By Benn Pit¬ 
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words, including every useful word in the language.3 00 

Questions on “ The Phonographic Amanuensis.” By Jerome 

B. Howard. 20 

A List of Logograms, Contractions, Phrases, and Other Special 
Forms, contained in “ The Phonographic Amanuensis.” By 

Jerome B. Howard. 10 

Instructor in Practical Court Reporting. By H. W. Thorne. 
The standard work on this important subject. I 00 



















Books Printed in Phonography. 

In the Amanuensis Style. 

Biographical Stories. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Arranged 
as a Progressive Phonographic Reader to accompany The Phono¬ 
graphic Amanuensis .$o 30 

*A Voyage to Lilliput. By Jonathan Swift. 30 

*A Christmas Carol. By Charles Dickens. 35 

*The Little Violinist, and Other Prose Sketches. By Thomas 

Bailey Aldrich. 25 

*The Numberg Stove. By “Ouida”. 25 

*Tales from Shakespeare. By Charles and Mary Lamb . . 30 

*The Succession of Forest Trees, and Other Essays. By Henry 

D. Thoreau. 25 

*Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. From The Spectator. ... 30 

* Jackanapes. By Juliana Horatia Ewing. 20 

In the Reporting Style. 

^Conciliation with the Colonies. By Edmund Burke. 30 

^Speech of Robert Y. Hayne. On Foote’s Resolution. 25 

Speech of Hon. David J. Lewis. On the High Cost of Living 15 
Speech of Hon. Herbert S. Bigelow. On the Initative and Ref¬ 
erendum. With key. 15 

Testimony of Louis J. Weichman in the Trial of John H. Surratt 

for the Murder of Abraham Lincoln. With key. 35 

Testimony for the Prosecution. In the case of United States 

versus Robert Hayes Mitchell. With key. 60 

Testimony Taken on the Trial of Andrew Johnson. 50 

Inorganic Chemistry. By E. C. C. Baly. 30 

Technical Reporting. No. 1.—Manufacturing. With key. . 30 

*Key, in ordinary print, will be sent, postpaid, for fifteen cents. 

Typewriter Instruction. 

The Touch Writer. A text-book for self- and class-instruction in 
the art of operating the typewriting without looking at the key¬ 
board. By J. E. Futler. 50 

Miscellaneous. 

Sir Isaac Pitman, His Life and Labors. By Benn Pitman i 00 
A Manual of Language Lessons. By F. R. Heath. A text-book 
on English, designed more especially for use in commercial col¬ 
leges and schools of shorthand.1 00 

The Dictater. A Collection of Graded Dictation Exercises for the 
use of Teachers and Students of Shorthand. By Mina Ward i 00 

For complete catalog 

Address, THE PHONOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE COMPANY, 

Cincinnati, O. 
























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